Pakistan’s US ambassador says Islamabad, New Delhi have had contact at national security level

WASHINGTON: Pakistan’s ambassador to the US said on Thursday that Islamabad and New Delhi have had contacts at the level of their respective National Security Councils, when asked if the nuclear-armed Asian neighbors had any ongoing lines of conversation.

The ambassador, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh, made the comments in an interview with CNN in which he also said the responsibility to de-escalate tensions between the two countries lay with India after two days of clashes.

Key quotes

“I think there have been contact at the level of NSCs, but then this escalation, both in terms of the actions that have been taken and in terms of rhetoric that is coming out, has to stop,” Sheikh said in the interview without giving more details about the contacts.

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“Now the responsibility for de-escalation is on India, but there are constraints on restraint. Pakistan reserves the right to respond back. There is enough pressure from our public opinion on the government to respond,” he added.

Why it’s important

Many global powers, including the US, have urged New Delhi and Islamabad to de-escalate tensions and keep lines of communication open. Washington has called for direct dialogue.

Context

The latest escalation in the decades-old India-Pakistan rivalry began on April 22 when gunmen killed 26 people in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir in an attack that New Delhi blamed on Islamabad, which denied the accusations and called for a neutral probe.