JK News Today
Jammu, May 09: The United States has once again opened communication with India and Pakistan, asking these countries to end the conflict with immediate effect.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke to Indian foreign minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Thursday and asked both of them to come to table.
The State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce in her briefing while reflecting on the widening Indo- Pak conflict following Indian response to the massacre of tourists in Pahalgam on April 22nd . India launched operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting nine sites housing infrastructure and spirit of terrorism of three major terror outfits- Jaish-e- Mohammad, Lashkar-e- Toiba, Hizb-ul- Mujahideen.
Pakistan escalated situation by attacking Indian cities, including Jammu in Jammu and Kashmir.
We reproduce Tammy Bruce’s comments made at press briefing on Thursday
This morning, Secretary Rubio spoke with Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif and Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar. In both calls, the Secretary emphasized the need for immediate de-escalation and called for an end to the violence. He expressed U.S. support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and encouraged continued efforts to improve communications.
MS BRUCE: Well, I think that having been listening to those calls, some of them, and being in the processes – all of us were in some fashion or another when this conflict began – it was the real focus of the Secretary of State, who has been the center point leading these conversations and these – this outreach. And he’s made very clear focusing on two things: that this should not escalate. This has been a key framework. Clearly this has been an issue for decades and it’s – with what we saw over the last few weeks after the terrorist attack, it was not surprising but very, very disappointing. But it was about, certainly, that it should not escalate. And communication was fundamentally key, that there should be talks, that there should not be silence, and that America obviously was in the center of this in speaking with a variety of leaders of both countries over the last two days.
QUESTION: So has he offered to play a mediation role between the two countries?
MS BRUCE: Well, as you know, I mean, there’s – this has been – every situation – in this particular case, of course, a very delicate and dangerous situation. But in any case, where there’s diplomatic conversations between leaders of countries or really any level where there’s negotiations happening, we are not going to be speaking about the details. That is certainly our policy. We think it’s important to not put details in the midst of the media, the worldwide media, when the work is being done privately between leaders, and we need to really try to keep it that way.
QUESTION: Sorry, and on the terrorist infrastructure, is there anything you can say? Does the U.S. have – have they been provided with any intelligence to back up India’s claims here?
MS BRUCE: Well, what I can say here – a few more things, certainly. We continue to urge India and Pakistan to work towards a responsible solution in this, and we’ve been saying that, certainly, from the beginning. We also want to say that what matters in this particular instance right now where we’re at is that the phone calls happened, that we are remaining engaged with both governments at, again, multiple levels. We, though, will not engage in the nature of discussing what the conversations have been or what we have conveyed. Certainly, there’s a lot already on the record when it comes to our reaction to what’s been happening here.
So there’s some discussion that Pakistan wants an independent investigation as to what has happened regarding the terrorist attack, and, of course, what we say to that is we want the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end.
All right. Shaun.
QUESTION: One more, please?
QUESTION: Could I (inaudible) just between Jenny’s question?
MS BRUCE: Yeah.
QUESTION: In the statement with – on the readout with the Pakistani prime minister, with Sharif, it says that the Secretary called for the end of any support to terrorist groups. I mean, is it the view of the United States, along with what India says, that Pakistan is supporting terrorist groups?
MS BRUCE: Well, obviously, in today’s world, that’s a call that we have been making for decades. It is the dynamic that we’ve seen in the Middle East, disrupting lives. And clearly what happened in Kashmir is awful, and we’ve all – of course, we send our condolences. The world has rejected the nature of that kind of violence overall, of course, and certainly the President has and continues to. But at this moment in time, there is like one thing that has to stop, which is a back-and-forth and a continuation of this, and that is what we’re focused on right now.
QUESTION: When you say a stop of the back-and-forth, an immediate de-escalation –
MS BRUCE: Yes.
QUESTION: – are you saying that India after taking action should stop? Is that basically what you’re saying? I mean (inaudible) –
MS BRUCE: Well, the message from the Secretary, and I think from the United States as a whole in general, is that the violence should stop, that military action, war – as we’ve seen in that region, certainly in the Middle East – has clearly for generation proven that it is not a solution because it never ends. There has to be a change in that regard. So obviously, when it comes to solving a problem, this administration has made itself clear, that war, the military, more violence is not a solution. Diplomacy is a solution, new ideas to stop generational violence and problems.
