TOI correspondent from Washington: US President Donald Trump hosted Pakistan's Army Chief, "Field Marshal" Asim Munir, for lunch at the White House on Wednesday, declaring "I love Pakistan" and insisting he averted a catastrophic war with India despite New Delhi bluntly repudiating his claims of mediation.
"Well, I stopped a war between Pakistan.... I love Pakistan... and I think Modi is a fantastic man... I spoke to him last night...I think we are going to have a trade deal with Modi of India...but I stopped a war between Pakistan and India. This man (Munir) was extremely influential in stopping it from the Pakistani side....Modi from the India side," Trump rambled on the sidelines of a White House event on Wednesday, hours after New Delhi pushed back on his claims.
Trump's lunch meeting with Munir preceded a phone call he had on Tuesday night with India's PM Modi in which he invited the latter to stop by in Washington DC on his way back from the G-7 meeting Canada, suggesting efforts at mediation which the US President has promised or claimed at various times.
Modi, according to Indian officials, expressed inability to stopover citing prior commitments and swatted away the offer the mediation efforts saying Pakistan and India had a bilateral mechanism, which is what averted an all-out war.
The lunch invitation came after Munir, according to a White House official, called for Trump to be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for preventing a nuclear war between India & Pakistan.
Trump's sudden turnaround on Pakistan, a country he described in his first term as "deceitful" and a "safe haven for terrorists," also came against the backdrop of potential US attack on Iran.
Trump's gambit astonished Washington's foreign policy boffins still unused to his unconventional approach to diplomacy. "Pretty wild that Trump tried to sneakily invite Modi to White House today, presumably when Asim Munir would also be present for lunch. He doesn’t understand the context and history of India-Pakistan tensions at all, and just wants the photo op to win a Nobel peace prize later," national security analyst Derek Grossman noted.
While the White House had denied reports last week that Munir had been invited to the US military parade, his luncheon meeting was reportedly initiated by Sajid Tarar, a Pakistani-American businessman who is a long-time Trump supporter and founder of the group "American Muslims for Trump."
Tarar has been a speaker at the last three Republican National Conventions and his close ties with MAGA saw his son join the state department during Trump's first term. Tarar has also praised Prime Minister Modi and has often expressed support for better India-Pakistan ties.
Tarar also hosted a community reception for Munir at the Four Seasons Hotel, where where the army chief praised the Pakistan diaspora as “true ambassadors” of Pakistan, recognising their contributions to Pakistan’s economy and global reputation through remittances, investments, and achievements in various fields -- not mentioning the numerous Pakistanis who have carried out terrorist attacks in the US and across the world.
It is rare, if not unprecedented, for the US President to host a lunch for a visiting foreign army chief. Although Pakistani military leaders like Ayub Khan, Zia-ul Haq, and Pervez Musharraf met contemporary US Presidents in the past ( Ayub Khan with Kennedy, Zia with Carter and Reagan, Musharraf with Bush), they did so after assuming leadership of the country following coups that deposed civilian leaders.
Trump enlists "deceitful" Pakistan as he aims at Iran
While Trump's gesture implicitly recognizes Munir as the de facto leader of Pakistan, Washington also appears to be enlisting his support, or at least acquiescence, for its planned strikes against Iran if the leadership in Teheran does not surrender its nuclear program. Although the US has other resources and bases in the Gulf and Indian Ocean (Diego Garcia) to attack Iran if it decides to, Pakistan has served as a US launchpad before.
The US and Israel also want to make sure Iran remains isolated in the Islamic umma, and derives no support from Pakistan, whose parlous condition makes its vulnerable to pressure, while also enabling it to pivot for a price.
Given Trump's maverick nature, it is also possible that Munir will be served notice about any support for Iran from Islamabad. Pakistan's civilian leadership has officially condemned Israel's attacks on Iran, describing them as a "brazen violation of Iran’s sovereignty" and an "unjustified and illegitimate aggression."
Pakistani officials, including Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, have expressed solidarity with Iran, stating that Pakistan stands with the government and people of Iran. Defence Minister Khawaja Asif also emphasized the need for Muslim nations to unite against what he termed "Israeli aggression," urging countries Muslim countries to sever ties with Israel and calling for an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to formulate a joint strategy.
Asif also warned that Israel's undeclared nuclear arsenal could escalate regional conflicts, though he dismissed claims by an Iranian general, Mohsen Rezaei, that Pakistan had promised nuclear retaliation against Israel if Iran were attacked with nuclear weapons, calling such claims "fabricated" and "irresponsible."
Unlike in the case of Iran, Washington was asleep at the wheel when Pakistan (and later North Korea) mastered the fuel cycle to become de-facto nuclear powers. Pakistan helped North Korea's nuclear weapons quest in exchange for ballistic missile technology and also briefly flirted with Iran when AQ Khan, the Pakistani nuclear engineer and smuggler, attempted to establish a clandestine nuclear network.
While Munir himself is a hardcore Islamist, expat Pakistanis in US allied with Imran Khan's PTI party allege that he is pro-Israel and is backing the US-Israel move against Iran so that Pakistan remains the sole Islamic nuclear power. Past military leaders like Zia-ul-Haq and Musharraf were also quick to turn Pakistan into a rentier state to extract billions of dollars in aid and military supplies from the United States.
PTI activists who were the first to out Munir's low-profile presence in the US, alleged that he attended a meeting of AIPAC, a pro-Israel lobby group, in Washington DC, pointing to his US associate Sajid Tarar, whom they described as "a staunch Zionist supporter of Israel and an enemy of Palestinian and Iranian Muslims."
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