Kashmir situation explosive and complicated: Trump

International Desk: Describing the situation in Kashmir as “explosive” and “complicated” on account of religious differences in the region, US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he “will do the best I can to mediate or do something” to defuse the crisis between Pakistan and India.

"Kashmir's a very complicated place. You have the Hindus, and you have the Muslims, and I wouldn't say they get along so great. And that's what you have right now,” Trump told reporters in the White House, offering a pared down explanation of a crisis he himself described as complicated.

The US President said he would be meeting India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the weekend at the G7 summit in Biarritz, France and suggested the issue may feature in their discussions.

“We are helping the situation. There are tremendous problems between those two countries and I will do the best I can to mediate or do something. It is a complicated situation. A lot has to do with religion. Religion is a complicated subject,” Trump said.

The US President’s remarks followed telephonic conversations he had, first with Pakistan’s prime minister Imran Khan, then with Prime Minister Modi, and back again with Khan, over the past four days.

While Khan has repeatedly sought his intervention and mediation in the crisis and attempted to leverage Washington’s need for Pakistan for the US exit from Afghanistan, Modi conveyed to him that Khan’s intemperate tweets on Sunday had befouled the atmosphere and bilateral talks between India and Pakistan would be considered only if he dialed down the rhetoric and rolled up and prosecuted the terror networks in Pakistan that launched repeated attacks on India.

risingbd/Aug 21, 2019/Mukul