'They say it's bilateral issue': Pakistan minister reveals how India firmly rejected any US involvement in dialogue

NEW DELHI: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar admitted that India had rejected any third-party mediation during Operation Sindoor, contradicting Trump’s claims of US-brokered peace between the two neighbors." Well we don't mind but India has categorically we stating it is bilateral so we do not mind bilateral but the dialogue have to be comprehensive. It will have dialogue on terrorism, dialogue on trade on economy on J&K and all the subjects, which we both have been discussing with. So incidentally when the ceasefire offer came through Sec Rubio me on May 10 May around 8:17 or past 8 in the morning I was told that there would be very soon dialogue between you and India at an independent place," Dar told Al Jazeera."When we met on July 25 bilateral meeting myself with Secretary Rubio in Washington, I asked him what happened to dialogue (Rubio) says India says that it is a bilateral issue," Dar added.Dar’s statements conflict with Trump’s repeated claims that the US mediated the ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed neighbors. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had told US President Donald Trump during a phone call that India will never countenance any form of mediation in its relations with Pakistan."PM Modi emphasised that India has never accepted mediation, does not accept it, and will never accept it,” foreign secretary Vikram Misri had said in a statement detailing a 35-minute-long phone call between the two leaders in June.India launched Operation Sindoor on May 7, targeting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and PoK in response to the Pahalgam terror attack on April 22, which killed 26 people. This led to four days of clashes between the two sides, which ended on May 10 after Pakistan's DGMO reached out for a ceasefire.