Posted on 02/26/2019 10:50:27 PM PST by robowombat
Mike Pompeo urges India, Pakistan to 'avoid escalation at any cost'
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has urged India and Pakistan to avoid further escalation "at any cost" and to "prioritise direct communication".
In a statement issued by his office in Washington following India's Line of Control (LoC) violation, Secretary Pompeo said that he spoke with Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj hours after Indian fighter jets intruded from the Muzaffarabad sector and scrambled back after dropping bombs.
While civilian and military leaders in Pakistan termed the LoC breach "an act of aggression by India", Pompeo called it "counter-terrorism actions".
“Following Indian counter-terrorism actions on February 26, I spoke with Indian Minister of External Affairs Swaraj to emphasise our close security partnership and shared goal of maintaining peace and security in the region,” he said in his statement.
“I also spoke to Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi to underscore the priority of de-escalating current tensions by avoiding military action, and the urgency of Pakistan taking meaningful action against terrorist groups operating on its soil," he said of his conversation with the minister.
According to the Foreign Office (FO), Qureshi had told Pompeo that Indian aggression was worthy of condemnation and hoped that the United States would play its role in the situation. He had also told Pompeo that the joint peace efforts in Afghanistan could be affected by India's aggression.
“I expressed to both ministers that we encourage India and Pakistan to exercise restraint, and avoid escalation at any cost,” he said. “I also encouraged both ministers to prioritise direct communication and avoid further military activity.”
As diplomatic observers in Washington pointed out, asking Pakistan to avoid “further military activity” deprives Islamabad of the right to respond to an unprovoked attack while creates space for India to escape the repercussions of its action.
Diplomatic sources in Washington said that Foreign Minister Qureshi told Secretary Pompeo Pakistan could not ignore the sentiments of its people on the Indian aggression when he asked him to show restraint.
Pakistani diplomats in Washington also reached out to senior US officials, legislators and opinion makers on Tuesday, explaining to them how the Indian attack had created a very dangerous situation in South Asia.
Old wounds are hard to heal. If WWIII starts this maybe the place.
But if you must insist, we got some specials going on right now. Blow up two, get the third one three.
Hey, I have a crazy idea. The Pakis are moslem idiots, they blocked supply routes into Afghanistan, they hid and protected Osama, and they are always launching terrorist attacks.
Lets quit giving Pakistan billions a year and letting them buy F-16s.
Pakistanis...couldn’t even get along with Gandhi.
WWIII is not starting any time soon and certainly not here.
Neither China nor America nor Russia give a #### enough to send their men to die for these two countries.
Include me in that too
Gosh I feel better now. I won’t worry about our people in the Indian Ocean. Hope they all sleep as good as me.
BINGO !!! We need to keep our $$$$$$ here at home. The turd world don’t deserve it. They take Our $$$$$ and Food/Humanitarian Aid and either bitch/piss and moan about it or some sleaze bag warlord steals it and the people that it was intended for never get it.
On the F-16’s we need to rig the foreign sales units with Satellite linked remote control so that if the Aircraft are misused all we have to do is press a few keystrokes and blow the Canopy off and trigger the Ejection Seat punching the Pilot out and let the Aircraft crash. If they keep screwing around, keep punching them out. If they figure out what’s going on then have another surprise of keystrokes that trigger a Thermite Charge nearby the internal fuel tanks and torch them on the Tarmac.
a new Bollywood film, mushrooms over pakistan
“Neither China nor America nor Russia give a #### enough to send their men to die for these two countries.”
India and Pakistan are one of the world’s most dangerous flash points. There has been a constant, low grade confrontation on the Indian/Chinese border for years. China is very aggressive and will use any opportunity to assume control of the disputed territory and, to survive as a nation, India MUST stop them. With the bulk of India’s military consumed on the Pakistani issue it is unlikely that China will pass up the opportunity to take the territory. India’s only option at that point might be to go nuclear. With China consumed on the Indian border other nations bordering China may also decide it’s an opportunity to take or consolidate disputed areas on their border with China. Vietnam and China have had a hot war in the relatively recent past. The US has interests as well as people in the area and must use Pakistan to transit supplies to Afghanistan.
This has the potential to blossom quickly into an all out war, and war there will impact much of the world.
India has been the patient, long suffering nation under constant assault from across the border. There is no doubt that elements of the Pakistani government have been funding and protecting the attackers. Pakistan is not a country like the United States where the President controls foreign policy. The feuding clans often hold government posts and use those posts to advance their own clan and to carry on a Jihad that the “government” can’t control. Imagine Nancy Pelosi carrying on her own foreign policy using taxpayer money.
>>The US has interests as well as people in the area and must use Pakistan to transit supplies to Afghanistan.
This event is yet another reason why we need to be out of Afghanistan after 17+ years.
what was shot down with what?
No! Let ‘em fight it out. India should prevail, and kill off more worthless muzzies!
If they nuke each other it will reduce the excess population in that part of the world.
And India has lots and lots of people while the mad muzzies have only a relative few.
Almost anything that results in fewer living moslems is a good thing.
Last I remember we do not have a mutual defense pact with India so this war would be none of our business at all.
F-16 SMOKED 2 Mig?29?
ouch
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.