'Fooled by Munir so easily': Ex-Foreign Secretary on Trump's fresh claims on India-Pakistan war

Former Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal on Tuesday hit back at US President Donald Trump for his repeated claims that he prevented a war between India and Pakistan, calling the assertions naive and questioning Trump's judgment.

"Millions of lives? Fooled by Munir so easily," Sibal said. "Wonder how he sees himself as a hard-headed businessman who knows the art of the deal when he is so soft-headed and gets blown over by those who use the art of flattery to play with his self-esteem to their advantage. What naiveté!"

Trump, in a speech to military leaders at Quantico on Tuesday, once again claimed that he had stopped a "very big" conflict between the two nuclear-armed nations. He credited Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir for allegedly praising him for saving millions of lives.

"I have settled so many wars in the nine months of my administration. I've settled seven. And yesterday we might have settled the biggest of them all, although I don't know, Pakistan and India was very big, both nuclear powers. I settled that," Trump said. He added that he felt "very honoured" when Munir reportedly said in a meeting that Trump "saved millions of lives because he saved the war from going on, and that war was going to get very bad, very, very bad." Trump also said that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles was present and described Munir’s remarks as “the most beautiful thing.”

Trump described his method of intervention as leveraging trade: "I had India and Pakistan, (they) were going at it and I called them both, and in this case, I used trade. I’m not going to trade with you. You start two nuclear nations. Big nuclear. No, no, no, no. You cannot do that. I said, ‘yes, I can. You go into this freaking war that I’m hearing about’...And I stopped the war. It was going, it was raging for four days, but that was just the beginning. And we stopped it. It was a great thing."

Since May 10, when Trump announced on social media that India and Pakistan had agreed to a "full and immediate" ceasefire after talks mediated by Washington, he has repeated his claim nearly 50 times. 

India, however, has consistently maintained that the cessation of hostilities was reached through direct talks between the Directors General of Military Operations of both militaries. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also clarified in Parliament that no foreign leader requested India to halt Operation Sindoor.

Trump also cited his broader peace efforts, including his plan to end the Gaza conflict, and his claimed role in seven other international disputes. He noted that he had been suggested for a Nobel Prize if he could resolve the Russia-Ukraine conflict but argued that he had already "stopped seven wars" and deserved recognition.