New Delhi:
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday spoke to Pakistan’s Army Chief General Asim Munir and urged for de-escalation with India amid heightened tensions between the two countries, US Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement.
Rubio also offered US assistance in starting “constructive” talks between the two countries to “avoid future conflicts”.
Earlier this week, Rubio had spoken with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif separately, emphasising the need for de-escalation and reiterated his calls for Pakistan to take concrete steps to end any support for terrorist groups.
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US President Donald Trump has also encouraged both countries to de-escalate.
“The President has expressed he wants to see this de-escalate as quickly as possible. He understands these are two countries that have been at odds with one another for decades, long before President Trump was here in the Oval Office,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
While the US is encouraging de-escalation, it said that it will not get involved in the conflict.
“What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit, but we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it. You know, America can’t tell the Indians to lay down their arms. We can’t tell the Pakistanis to lay down their arms. And so, we’re going to continue to pursue this thing through diplomatic channels,” US Vice President JD Vance, who has been a proponent of US disengagement from international conflicts, said.
India-Pakistan tensions
Tensions between India and Pakistan heightened after India’s Operation Sindoor – a targeted military strike in Pakistan and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir – to avenge the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack. Since then, India has repulsed three waves of drone and missile attacks by Pakistan targeting Indian military installations in Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, and Punjab.
In the latest provocation from Pakistan, drones, including the armed ones, were sighted at 26 locations in India, ranging from Jammu and Kashmir to Gujarat, along both the International Border and the Line of Control. On Saturday morning, powerful explosions were reported across multiple Pakistani air bases, including a critical installation near the capital Islamabad, prompting the Pakistani government to shut down the country’s airspace. Multiple explosions were also heard in Srinagar this morning, hours after India repelled Pakistani drone attacks.
“Pakistan’s blatant escalation with drone strikes and other munitions continues along our western borders. In one such incident, today at approximately 5 AM, Multiple enemy armed drones were spotted flying over Khasa Cantt, Amritsar. The hostile drones were instantly engaged and destroyed by our air defence units,” the Indian Army said.
