Pakistani Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar admitted on Tuesday that India had declined any third-party intervention during Operation Sindoor, refuting the charges by President Trump that the US had brokered peace between the neighbors.
" Well we don't mind but India has categorically we stating it is bilateral so we do not mind bilateral but the dialogue have to be comprehensive. It will have dialogue on terrorism, dialogue on trade on economy on J&K and all the subjects, which we both have been discussing with. So incidentally when the ceasefire offer came through Sec Rubio me on May 10 May around 8:17 or past 8 in the morning I was told that there would be very soon dialogue between you and India at an independent place," Dar told Al Jazeera.
"When we met on July 25 bilateral meeting myself with Secretary Rubio in Washington, I asked him what happened to dialogue (Rubio) says India says that it is a bilateral issue," Dar added.
These words contradict Trump's insistence that the US acted as a go-between to broker a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had previously told US President Donald Trump in a telephone call that India would not accept any kind of external mediation in its relations with Pakistan.
"PM Modi emphasised that India has never accepted mediation, does not accept it, and will never accept it,” foreign secretary Vikram Misri had said in a statement detailing a 35-minute-long phone call between the two leaders in June.
Operation Sindoor, initiated by India on May 7, focused on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK as a response to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that resulted in 26 fatalities. The military confrontations continued for four days and ended on May 10 after Pakistan's DGMO called to make a ceasefire arrangement.
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