Washington, DC: The conflict between India and Pakistan could have turned nuclear had he not stopped it, US president Donald Trump reiterated on Tuesday.
“I settled eight wars. Of the eight wars, at least six were settled because of tariffs. In other words, I said, ‘if you don’t settle this war, I’m going to charge you tariffs, because I don’t want to see people getting killed,” Trump said in an interview to Fox Business.
“And they said, ‘Well, what does this have to do?’ I said, ‘you’re going to be charged’. Like India and Pakistan. It would have been a nuclear war, in my opinion. They were really
going at it, 10 planes were shot down. They were going at it,” the Republican leader said.
“The prime minister of Pakistan said, ‘President Trump saved at least 10 million lives when he got us to stop fighting’. Because they were going to go nuclear, (in) my opinion. Without tariffs, that wouldn’t happen,” Trump added, as reported by Hindustan Times.
Since May 10, 1025, Trump has on more than 80 occasions, claimed credit for stopping the India-Pakistan conflict. It was the US president who first announced on social media that the two neighbours had agreed to a “full and immediate” ceasefire after talks mediated by Washington.
India has consistently denied any third-party intervention though.
Operation Sindoor was launched by India on May 7 last year in retaliation to the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 civilians. India targetted terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir. These strikes led to a four-day conflict between India and Pakistan.