Asim Munir has credited the US president for preventing a nuclear war in South Asia
Pakistan Army chief Asim Munir has called for US President Donald Trump to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for averting a “nuclear war between India and Pakistan” last month, Reuters reports, citing White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. Trump invited Munir for a private meeting over lunch on Wednesday, after the Pakistani field marshal called for the Nobel nomination, Kelly said, according to the report.
Munir, who is widely regarded as the most powerful person in Pakistan, became the first Pakistani serving chief of army staff to have a face-to-face meeting with a sitting US president, according to the Dawn newspaper. This was also the first time a serving Pakistani army chief was formally received at this level without holding political office or governing under martial law, the paper added.
“He [Munir] agreed with me. The reason I had him here was that I wanted to thank him for not going into the war [with India],” Trump told reporters after the meeting. “And I want to thank [Indian] PM Modi as well, who just left a few days ago. We’re working on a trade deal with India and Pakistan. These two very smart people decided not to keep going with a war that could have been a nuclear war. Pakistan and India are two big nuclear powers.”
A few hours before hosting Munir, the US president had a phone call with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who reaffirmed New Delhi’s long standing stance against third-party intervention in its dealings with Pakistan. Last month, the two South Asian nations had a military showdown, which began when India launched strikes on suspected terrorist facilities in Pakistani-controlled territories.
New Delhi said the strikes were conducted in response to a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir in April. The hostilities ended on May 10 when a ceasefire was announced. Trump has repeatedly taken credit for the ceasefire, though New Delhi has refuted the claim. The meeting on Wednesday between Trump and Munir was held amid tensions in the Middle East over the conflict between Israel and Iran.
Pakistan shares a border of more than 600 miles with Iran and enjoys good diplomatic relations with Tehran. Trump told reporters that Pakistan has a deep understanding of Iran, possibly more so than most countries, and is dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. “It’s not that they’re bad with Israel. They know them both, actually, but they know Iran better,” he said.
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