“Well, it’s definitely very significant in that, in my view, it goes further than previous statements that Trump has made about Kashmir when he was president the first time. I believe on two occasions he had indicated that he would be happy to mediate on the Kashmir issue if both sides agreed, but he had that condition, and of course India would have no interest in this type of contingency,” he said.
Kugelman added that this offer not just pertained to the isolated incident of Pahalgam terror attack, but several other things.
“But this time he appeared to suggest that this is an open-ended offer, that he’s ready to talk about this issue. So that’s very significant. I think that it is, it is notable for, for the reason that you mentioned that he makes this comment now because indeed the recent crisis was not really about Kashmir,” he said.
“The terrorist attack that precipitated the crisis happened in Kashmir, but, on the whole, this is about other things. So one wonders why he was prompted Trump to make this comment when he did,” he added.
Kugelman added that the main reason why the issue was huge was because of the fear of nuclear weaponry.
“I think that the reason why the nuclear issue was, a big factor in this crisis because the level of conventional military hostilities was increasing to levels that we’ve not seen for so long, and because of that, because the two sides were climbing up so high on the escalation ladder, invariably because these two countries had nuclear weapons, there would be growing concerns about the risk of escalation to nuclear level,” he said.
“I had no reason to think that there was any contemplation of any type of decision related to, nuclear weapons,” he added.
Kugelman added that Pakistan tries to attract international attention in the Kashmir issue.
“It is not unusual to hear this type of rattling from the Pakistside, sort of boasting about Pakistan’s nuclear capacities, signalling this idea that there is a risk of nuclear conflict. I think that’s partly done for a global audience to try to get the attention of the world, to try to inspire it to pay more attention to the crisis and to try to pressure India to rein things in, so to speak,” he said.
Kugelman added that Pakistan’s tactics caused top US officials, US Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio to intervene in the issue.
“I certainly think that was the case with this crisis, and I think that’s been the case in the past. And if that’s true, it worked because indeed, I think it’s quite clear that the two main US Officials leading the US response in this crisis, Vance and Rubio were both provoked by the need to be more involved once they started to fear possible nuclear escalation risks,” he said.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on May 1 spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and made it clear that “India will hit the terrorists in Pakistan” after the terrorist attack in Pahalgam, Jammu and Kashmir, on April 22, the sources said.
