Pakistan ready for Trump-mediated dialogue with India in US.

Byline: SHAFQAT ALI

ISLAMABAD -- Pakistan does not have any reservations against holding talks with India with US President Donald Trump playing a mediator's role.

Close aides of Prime Minister Imran Khan told The Nation that Pakistan was not against talks at the bilateral level or with any mediator.

'If the US President plays a role (while Imran Khan is in the US this month), we will not say no. We do have reservations on whatever is going on in Kashmir but we have never thought of war. We always advocate dialogue,' one aide said.

Another key government official said that if Trump sits between Imran Khan and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 'we will not set any conditions.'

He added: 'In that case (if Trump mediates) we will go straight into talks. It's for India to decide what they want. When the PM (Imran Khan) says we don't want talks with India in the current circumstances, he doesn't mean, we will not accept any mediation. Trump-level mediation is always welcome. We are not alone in demanding peace in Kashmir. The whole world supports our point of view.'

President Trump is playing an active role to defuse the Pak-India tension but India is defiant to play under its own terms. 'The only thing Pakistan wants is normalcy in Kashmir. We are ready for talks anywhere, anytime,' he maintained.

Earlier, a US think-tank warned that the spectre of nuclear war haunts tensions between Pakistan and India and the disputed territory of Kashmir could provide the spark that lights South Asia's nuclear fuse.

The report by Stratfor, a geopolitical intelligence platform based in Austin, Texas, also disputes the classification of Kashmir issue as India's internal affair or a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan.

The possibility of the conflict going nuclear has increased after Indian Defense Minister Rajnath Singh's statement of abandoning India's 'no first use' doctrine, says the report. It said the people of Kashmir were promised a plebiscite that never took place.

It pointed out that last February, Pakistan downed an Indian fighter jet but returned its pilot. However, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not acknowledge Islamabad's conciliatory gesture nor his government has been willing to discuss the Kashmir issue, whose people were promised a plebiscite on their future.

President Trump has been in contact with both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Prime Minister Modi urging the need to reduce tensions over Kashmir and avoid steps that...