‘Never Asked Anyone To Mediate’: Shashi Tharoor Junks Trump’s Claim On India-Pakistan Ceasefire

<p>Leading the Indian delegation in Washington to promote India&rsquo;s firm stance against terrorism, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Thursday dismissed US President Donald Trump&rsquo;s claims that he was mediating between India and Pakistan. Tharoor stated clearly that India has never sought mediation in its conflict with Pakistan.</p>
<p>&ldquo;We have enormous respect for the American Presidency and the American President (Donald Trump). All we can say for ourselves is that we have never particularly wanted to ask anyone to mediate,” Tharoor said, addressing recent remarks by Rahul Gandhi and Trump&rsquo;s claims.</p>
<p>Highlighting the scale of India&rsquo;s &lsquo;<a title=”Operation Sindoor” href=”https://news.abplive.com/topic/operation-sindoor” data-type=”interlinkingkeywords”>Operation Sindoor</a>&rsquo; against terror infrastructure in Pakistan, Tharoor added, &ldquo;What turned out to be the last night of the conflict, India effectively struck 11 Pakistani military airfields.&rdquo; He further noted the release of a confidential Pakistani dossier acknowledging widespread damage from Indian strikes, &ldquo;Pakistan itself acknowledged that Indian strikes were so widespread they ranged from Hyderabad in the south to Peshawar in the northwest.”</p>
<p>On Pakistan&rsquo;s May 10 request to halt Indian operations following heavy damage from the strikes, Tharoor said, &ldquo;So, it looks very clear that whatever damage the Pakistanis believe they may have inflicted on India, it wasn&rsquo;t sufficient to prevent India for inflicting such extensive damage on Pakistan. So, they decided to request us to stop, which we&rsquo;re very happy to do.&rdquo;</p>
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<h2>No Talks Under Threat, No Need for Intermediaries, Says Tharoor</h2>
<p>Responding to questions about India&rsquo;s reaction to US calls for mediation and Rahul Gandhi&rsquo;s remark that Prime Minister Modi had &ldquo;surrendered&rdquo; to Trump, Tharoor maintained a diplomatic tone, saying,</p>
<p>Shashi Tharoor was also asked about Rahul Gandhi’s statement in which he said, “PM Modi surrendered to President Trump.”&nbsp;</p>
<p>&ldquo;Look, all I can say is that we have enormous respect for the American presidency and the American president. And all we can say for ourselves is that we have never particularly wanted to ask anyone to mediate. As I said, we have no real difficulty in speaking the same language as the Pakistanis.</p>
<p>As long as they use the language of terrorism, we will use the language of force, and that doesn’t require a third party. If, on the other hand, they were to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism, we can talk to them. If they take serious actions to show that they want to restore normal relationships with us, we can certainly talk to them again without needing an intermediary.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Tharoor emphasized India&rsquo;s readiness to stop operations the moment Pakistan ceased its aggression, explaining, &ldquo;During this conflict, as I said, in any case, India didn’t need persuading to stop. No one needed to tell us, stop, because we were telling them. The moment Pakistan stops, we are prepared to stop.&rdquo;</p>
<p>”The moment Pakistan stops, we are prepared to stop. So if they, in turn, then told the Pakistanis, you better stop because the Indians are willing to stop, and that was what they did, then that’s a wonderful gesture on their part with Pakistan, but only Pakistan, and they can tell us exactly what happened. With us, all we can say is that we know, in our conversations, some of these things didn’t come up,” he added.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Regarding the US role in encouraging dialogue between India and Pakistan, Tharoor stated, &ldquo;I think the US has understood for some time now that India has a very clear position that there will be no talks with a gun pointed at our head.&rdquo;</p>
<p>Concluding on a positive note about Indo-US relations, Tharoor said, &ldquo;We have an enormous respect for the U.S., and we have a much more important, valuable strategic partnership with Washington that we wouldn’t want to jeopardize over a matter of detail. We are interested. We’ve been talking at the moment about a number of areas of cooperation. We’re interested in enhancing all of that. So small matters can go by, and we can focus on tomorrow.&rdquo;</p>