India rejected third-party mediation on talks, says Pakistan foreign minister

India has “categorically” said that any dialogue with Pakistan has to be held at a bilateral level, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar told Al Jazeera in an interview aired on Monday.

Asked whether Islamabad wanted the involvement of a third-party mediator, Dar said: “Well, we don’t mind, but India has been categorically saying that it is bilateral, so we don’t mind bilateral.”

Talking about the ceasefire negotiations with India in May following Operation Sindoor, the Pakistani foreign minister said: “When the ceasefire offer came through Secretary Rubio [US Secretary of State Marco Rubio] to me on 10th of May, around 8.17 am, I was told that there would very soon be a dialogue between you [Pakistan] and India at an independent place.”

He added that when he met Rubio on July 25 for a bilateral meeting in Washington, the US secretary of state asked him about the proposed dialogue between India and Pakistan.

“He said India says it is a bilateral issue,” Dar said. “So we are not begging for anything…any country…So unless India wishes to have dialogue, we don’t wish to force them.”

The statement contradicts United States President Donald Trump’s claim of having mediated dialogue between India and Pakistan earlier this year.

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