WASHINGTON, DC — A high-level Pakistani delegation to the United States, led by the former foreign minister and son of President Asif Ali Zardari, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, praised President Donald Trump for brokering a ceasefire with India as the two nuclear-armed countries lobby U.S. lawmakers for support.
Speaking to Breitbart News on Friday at the Embassy of Pakistan, Bhutto Zardari, who leads the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP), called the Indian government’s denial that Trump helped the ceasefire deal “embarrassing” and accused them of “robbing” that victory from the U.S.
The Pakistani delegation, which included several other lawmakers, met with numerous think tanks, security officials, members of Congress, and other figureheads while visiting Washington, DC, this week as their Indian counterparts did the same:
The worst violence between the neighboring South Asian nations occurred in early May, two weeks after New Delhi blamed Islamabad for backing a terrorist attack on civilians in the Indian-run side of the disputed region of Kashmir, Breitbart News reported:
India bombed alleged terrorist targets inside Pakistan on Tuesday night in retaliation for the brutal massacre of tourists by terrorist gunmen with Pakistani connections on April 22. Pakistan fired on India’s warplanes during the operation, and the two sides have been exchanging attacks and counter-attacks with artillery and small arms fire every day since Tuesday, each side blaming the other for initiating hostilities.
On May 10, Trump announced a “full and immediate ceasefire” between the battling countries after a “long night of talks mediated by the United States”:
At the time, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced that the top military officials in his country and in Pakistan have been in contact, and they have agreed that “both sides would stop all fighting and military action on land, air and sea with effect from 17:00 Indian Standard Time (7:00 A.M. Eastern time) today.”
However, the Indian publication Deccan Herald reported on June 5 that New Delhi has “dismissed the US president’s claim” that he brokered an agreement and “stressed that the proposal for halting the cross-border offensives had come from Islamabad on May 10 after Pakistan’s airbases and other military installations had suffered severe damage due to missile and drone strikes by India.”
Bhutto Zardari dismissed India’s refusal to acknowledge Trump’s role, saying, “It’s just embarrassing at this point. The entire world saw the events. We know Secretary of State [Marco Rubio] made phone calls to our side, made phone calls to their side.”
“They made promises to both sides,” he continued. “All the titles in the intelligence community knows, your media knows, everybody else in the room or part of that conversation — we’re all saying the same thing.”
Pakistani Sen. Musadik Malik, who served as spokesperson for former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and is currently Minister of Energy (MoE) in Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s administration, told reporters that “President Trump is not being celebrated enough” for his “critical role” in the ceasefire.
“I think that was a great intervention that the U.S. president did. And I think he’s not getting recognized enough for that and he should be, both internationally, as well as in the United States,” Malik said during the Friday press conference.
The senator went on to say that Trump is playing the same peacemaker role with Russia and Ukraine, and between Israel and Palestine.
“As the senator said, I believe that the United States should be celebrated,” Bhutto Zardari concurred.
He added, “For five days, they were up all night trying to resolve this crisis. The least you can do with a common decency is to appreciate and acknowledge what they’ve done.”
“So in [India’s] attempts to sort of run away from this commitment about this cease fire, they will try to sabotage President Trump’s broader vision for peace in the region.”
Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.
Read the full article here