05 June 2025 : Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called on US President Donald Trump to facilitate dialogue with India as New Delhi continues to ramp up its efforts to expose Islamabad’s role in cross-border terrorism that necessitated Operation Sindoor.
Addressing an event at the US embassy in Islamabad, Shehbaz Sharif praised Donald Trump for his role in helping de-escalate the situation with India, a claim New Delhi has publicly denied. He also urged Washington to facilitate a comprehensive dialogue between the two nuclear neighbours, news agency ANI reported.
The Pakistan PM was repeating the plea made by former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who had claimed that Trump “deserves credit” for helping facilitate the cessation of hostilities between the two nations.
“On 10 different occasions, he has taken credit for facilitating the ceasefire between India and Pakistan – and rightly so. He deserves that credit because it was his efforts that helped make the ceasefire possible. So, if the US is willing to help Pakistan in maintaining this ceasefire, it is reasonable to expect that an American role in arranging a comprehensive dialogue would also be beneficial for us,” Bhutto had said.
India has consistently rejected third-party mediation on bilateral issues with Pakistan, including the Kashmir issue.
Indian delegation to US on Operation Sindoor responds
The Indian delegation, led by Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, on Operation Sindoor visiting the US – one of seven such teams sent by the GOI – has said that Washington has understood India’s position that there can be no talks with a gun pointed at the head.
“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… The problem is that we will not deal with people who are pointing a gun at our heads. I mean frankly, if your neighbour unleashes his Rottweilers to bite your children and in fact to do worse to your children, and then says, let’s talk. You think he’s going to talk until he either unleashes those Rottweilers or locks them up in a kennel, or puts them to sleep. It’s as simple as that. You’re not going to talk to people who are pointing guns at your temples. It’s not going to happen,” said Shashi Tharoor, who is leading the all-party delegation to the United States.
Tharoor also slammed the Pakistani side for making claims that it was as much a victim of terrorism as India was.
“This (Pakistan) delegation is going around saying we are also victims of terrorism, we have lost more lives to terrorism than India has. We turn around and say- Whose fault is that? As Hillary Clinton famously said 10 years ago. You can’t breed vipers in your backyard and expect them to bite only your neighbours…That’s why they (Pakistan) are now getting terrorists attacked by the Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan, but who created the Taliban from which the Tehrik-i-Taliban broke off? We all know the answer to that, so let Pakistan look inside it and let it do some serious interior reflection before it goes around pleading innocence and deniability and everything else,” the Congress MP added
Echoing that sentiment, BJP MP Tejasvi Surya, who is also a member of the delegation, said that Pakistan speaking of peace was like the devil quoting the scriptures.
“Bhutto has been calling his delegation a peace delegation, and it is quite ironic that the Pakistani delegation is speaking the language of peace. It’s like the Devil quoting from the scriptures. For a country that is trying to create fake heroes by promoting failed generals to field marshal, they don’t know what true leaders look like. Pakistan has been surviving on cheap Chinese imports, including military hardware, which spectacularly failed on the battlefield.. So perhaps it is hard for them to digest high-quality, high-calibre military hardware as well as strong democratic leadership on the other side of the border,” he said.
Summary:
Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif urges Trump to mediate with India, but India rejects third-party talks, stressing focus on terrorism and PoK.