Donald Trump offers to mediate as India-Pakistan conflict spirals

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Donald Trump’s administration is pressing to prevent Pakistan’s Indian missile strikes from sprouting to a nuclear stall among the countries, giving himself to mediate in the first major international crisis that has been exploded since the inauguration.

The President of the United States said he hoped that they can “stop now.”

“If I can do something to help -me, I’ll be there,” he said on Wednesday. “My position is that I get along with both, I know them very well and I want to see them solve them.”

India and Pakistan He is now facing his worst clash in more than two decades, after New Delhi struck what was called “terrorist infrastructure” and Islamabad said that he fired Indian planes and promised that the missile strike was resumed.

Marco Rubio, Secretary of State of the United States, has been in contact With the two countries and spoke separately with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan al-Saud, on Wednesday to discuss how the conflict can be avoided.

But while the United States has acted as a mediator in prior crisis in southern Asia, exercising soothing influence that has helped to avoid direct war, Washington can be too distracted by Ukraine and Gaza to solve Indian-Pakistan clash, at least in their early stages, according to analysts.

According to experts, Washington Messaging from the attack has been inconsistent. The US strongly condemned the trigger for Indian missile strikes – to horror attack In Pahalgam, in the disputed territory of Kashmir, on April 22, he killed 26 people.

But in the days of the attack, Rubio urged both Indian and Pakistani governments to work together to “de -escalate tensions” and “maintain peace and safety in southern Asia.”

This did not go well in New Delhi, said Tanvi Madan, an expert in Asia in the south of the institution of Brookings. “When something happens like this, you can see both parties on climbing in India as asking for an Indian containment, and this is not something that the United States would expect, for example, Israel after a horror attack,” he said.

In the meantime, India said that during a call from May 1 between United States Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth and his Indian counterpart Rajath Singh, Washington had “reiterated the strong support of the United States government in the fight against Indian terrorism” and “supports India’s right to defend.”

This suggested a green light for Indian retractionssaid Madan.

Then, three days after the incident, Trump emphasized that the two countries “would be able to find out in one way or another,” adding: “There is a great tension between Pakistan and India, but there have always been.”

Moeed Yusuf, a senior fellow at Belfer Center at Harvard University and the former Pakistan National Security Assesser, said that the Washington approach to tensions derived after the April 22 terror attack has been more “manual” than in previous crises.

“Maybe they have calculated that someone else (mediated) and no one did,” Yusuf said. “But there is no other country, but the United States that can force India and Pakistan to be decame.”

Yusuf said that the United States has “choreographed diplomatic efforts” to solve previous disputes between the two countries, with even non-American allies such as Russia and China “falling online” behind initiatives. But it was not clear if the same thing would happen this time.

The conflict comes when the United States are trying to deepen their relationship with both India and Pakistan. Nova Delhi and Washington have strategic, defense and technology -expanding collaboration, largely aimed at counterbalance China, and both countries are Dedicated to conversations about a bilateral trade agreement aimed at defending Trump’s threat of a “reciprocal” rate 26 percent on Indian goods.

India worried about keeping the United States informed about the missile attack. Shortly afterwards, Pakistan, Ajit Doval, India National Security Advisor, spoke with Rubio and his counterparts to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Japan, according to a source of the Indian government.

Pakistan has traditionally been a critical buyer of American military hardware and is also a regional security partner, although this role has declined since the Taliban routing of a government in Afghanistan in 2021.

Muhammad Aurangzeb, Finance Minister of Pakistan, told The Financial Times on Wednesday that his country would host “any role” that the United States and other partners could play in the mediation of tensions with India.

“The United States is a very important strategic partner,” he said. “We would welcome any of our partners … to come and help to be independent referees at this time.

Additional reports from Humza Jilani to Islamabad