Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar has admitted that during Operation Sindoor (May 2025), India never consented to third-party mediation, not even from the United States. This directly contradicts the U.S. President Donald Trump’s claims repeated more than 25 times that Washington mediated to defuse tensions, a line echoed by Vice-President JD Vance.
India has consistently rejected such assertions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, speaking in Parliament, reiterated New Delhi’s uncompromising stance: _“pani aur khoon ek sath nahi beh sakte” ; water and blood cannot flow together. In other words, terror and talks, terror and trade cannot go hand in hand. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar Prasad further emphasised that the Directors General of Military Operations (DGMOs) of India and Pakistan themselves agreed on ceasefire mechanisms, leaving no scope for outside involvement.
Dar’s acknowledgement vindicates India’s long-held position while exposing the political utility of inflated mediation narratives abroad. The episode also highlights Pakistan’s shifting rhetoric under domestic and diplomatic pressures. Analytically, the message is clear; unless Islamabad demonstrates remarkable progress in dismantling terror infrastructure, dialogue will remain frozen. Operation Sindoor thus underlines South Asia’s hard reality peace rests on bilateral resolve, not rhetorical claims of foreign intervention.
