'Won't say I did, but I sure...': Donald Trump softens claim on India-Pakistan mediation

Days after claiming credit for mediating peace between India and Pakistan, US President Donald Trump has now tempered his assertion, saying he doesn't want to claim full credit but believes he played a role in halting hostilities. 

"I don't want to say I did, but I sure as hell helped settle the problem between Pakistan and India last week, which was getting more and more hostile, and all of a sudden, you’ll start seeing missiles of a different type, and we got it settled,” Trump said. “I hope I don’t walk out of here and two days later find out that it’s not settled, but I think it is settled, and we talked to them about trade. Let’s do trade instead of [war]. And Pakistan was very happy with that, and India was very happy with that, and I think they’re on the way.”

He added, “They’ve been fighting for about a 1000 years in all fairness. So I said, you know. I could settle that up. I could settle; let me settle it up, and let’s get them all together... It was really going to be escalating out of control.”

Trump's remarks come amid repeated clarifications from India that there was no third-party mediation.

According to Indian officials, ceasefire talks followed a direct request from Pakistan's Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) to his Indian counterpart.

External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar has dismissed any notion of US-led de-escalation. "We achieved the goals which we set out to do by destroying the terrorist infrastructure. The satellite pictures show how much damage we did and what little damage they did. It is clear who wanted cessation of firing," he said.

Jaishankar maintained that India's relationship with Pakistan will remain strictly bilateral. "Our relations and dealings with Pakistan will be strictly bilateral. That is a national consensus for years, and there is absolutely no change in that," Jaishankar added. "The prime minister made it very clear that talks with Pakistan will be only on terror. Pakistan has a list of terrorists that needs to be handed over, and they have to shut down the terrorist infrastructure. They know what to do."

Trump had earlier claimed his administration helped broker a "historic ceasefire" between India and Pakistan after India launched Operation Sindoor in response to the Pahalgam terror attack, targeting nine terror camps inside Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.