US President Donald Trump changed his offer of negotiation between India and Pakistan on Monday in advance of a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan. The offer – his third – came barely 24 hours after he shared stage with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a huge community meeting in Houston and emphasized the US will be to the side “free the world of thorough Islamic violence”.
At the start of Monday’s conference with Imran Khan, President Trump said if both Mr Khan and PM Modi wanted him to mediate an agreement between them on Kashmir, he was “ready, willing and able”.
“If I can assist, I will certainly assist… If both (India and Pakistan) want, I am ready to do it… I have a very good association with Prime Minister Modi. I have a very good bond with Prime Minister Khan… I would be an extremely good mediator. I have never been unsuccessful as a mediator,” he told reporters, Imran Khan at his side.
Previously, during meetings with Imran Khan in which the Pakistan Prime Minister had raised the Kashmir subject, US President had talked of arbitration between Islamabad and New Delhi. But India had said a solid “no”, reiterating that Kashmir was a mutual issue.
In his speech on Sunday, PM Modi has shown his aggression on Pakistan, which is also attending the UN General meeting and is predictable to raise Kashmir. Without identification of the country, he said they have “made detestation towards India the center of their schema of things. They support terror, they harbor terrorists”.
“Whether it is 9/11 in America or 26/11 in Mumbai, where are its conspirators found? Not only you, the whole universe knows who these people are,” he added.
On his part, Trump had vowed to defend guiltless civilians from the danger of radical Islamic terrorism and enforcing border security.
But asked if he agreed with India’s stand that Pakistan is a base for terrorists, US President said, “I have been pointing much more to Iran”. relating PM Modi’s comments on Pakistan at the Houston episode on Sunday as “very aggressive”, President Trump, though, added that it was “well established” by the 50,000-strong Indian-Americans who were attending the program.
On US-Pakistan ties, Trump said: “People in my place have treated Pakistan very badly… I believe Pakistan but presidents before me didn’t, but they didn’t know what they were doing,” he briefed in response to a question.
