Islamabad is seeking help from Washington in facilitating talks between New Delhi and Islamabad as the two neighbors are not engaging bilaterally. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said, warning that absence of such facilitation could lead to escalation of tension
But the latest Pakistani request in this regard has again been rejected by the US, the top Pakistani diplomat told a Washington audience on Wednesday, a day after he had meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Advisor John Bolton, during which he raised the issue only to be pushed back by the Trump administration.
“When we asked the US, to play a facilitating role…Why do we ask? Simply because we are not engaging bilaterally. And that bilateral disengagement is…a distraction. We want to focus, we want to move on the western side of the border, which we are not being able to because we have to watch our back from eastern side (towards India). That is not a healthy situation to be in,” Mr Qureshi said in response to a question at the US Institute of Peace, a US Congress-funded top American think-tank
“When we asked the US, to play a facilitating role…Why do we ask? Simply because we are not engaging bilaterally. And that bilateral disengagement is…a distraction. We want to focus, we want to move on the western side of the border, which we are not being able to because we have to watch our back from eastern side (towards India). That is not a healthy situation to be in,” Mr Qureshi said in response to a question at the US Institute of Peace, a US Congress-funded top American think-tank.