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What US state department said as India foils Pakistan's attempts to strike military sites
The US state department spokesperson said the US is in constant touch with both India and Pakistan in order to broker peace.
Amid escalating tensions between India and Pakistan, as both countries engaged in an exchange of fire actively, United States secretary of state Mark Rubio’s primary focus lies in ensuring that the conflict doesn’t escalate further, said US state department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce on Thursday (local time).
Bruce, while addressing a press briefing, also said the US is in constant touch with both India and Pakistan to broker peace and de-escalate the ongoing situation.
"The real focus of the Secretary of State is that this should not escalate. This has been a key framework. This has been an issue for decades, and with what we saw over the last few weeks, after the terrorist attack. It was not surprising but very, very disappointing. It should not escalate and communication was fundamentally key that there should be talks, there should not be silence, and that America was at the center of this in speaking with a variety of leaders of both countries over the last two days," ANI quoted Bruce as saying.
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She also said that on Thursday morning, Rubio talked to India’s foreign minister S Jaishankar and Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and requested restraint and end to violence.
"This morning secretary Marco Rubio spoke with Pakistani PM Shehbaz Sharif and EAM Dr S Jaishankar. In both calls, the Secretary emphasised the need for immediate de-escalation and called for an end to the violence. He expressed US support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and encouraged continued efforts to improve communications," she said.
According to Bruce, there are discussions about Pakistan wanting an independent probe into the April 22 terror attack that killed 26 people in Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
Also read: India foils Pakistani attack on military bases day after Operation Sindoor
"There's some discussion that Pakistan wants an independent investigation as to what has happened regarding the terrorist attack. We want the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end. We continue to urge India and Pakistan to work towards a responsible solution in this," Bruce said.
"We also want to say that what matters in this particular instance right now is that the phone calls happened and we are remaining engaged with both governments at multiple levels. We will not engage in the nature of discussing what the conversations have been or what we've conveyed," she added.
While talking about whether the US agrees with India’s anti-terror stance and that Pakistan shelters terrorists, Bruce said “that's a call that we have been making for decades”.
"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 send our condolences. The world has rejected the nature of that kind of violence," she said.
With ANI inputs.
