Trump Hopes Confrontation With Pakistan 'Ends Very Quickly', UN's Guterres Urges 'Restraint'

New Delhi: Even as national security adviser Ajit Doval briefed his US counterpart Marco Rubio shortly after India conducted missile strikes on Pakistani targets early Wednesday, US President Donald Trump, in his first remarks, told reporters that he hoped the military escalation would “end very quickly.”

India announced on Wednesday morning that it had targeted nine non-military sites in Pakistan, in retaliation for a terror attack in Kashmir two weeks ago that killed 26 civilians.

Pakistan claimed that India had launched missiles at  six sites, four in Punjab province, and two in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

While the Pakistani military spokesperson was the first to promise retaliation, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif asserted that Pakistan “reserves the absolute right to respond decisively to this unprovoked Indian attack” – which he said was a 'declaration of war' – adding that “a resolute response is already underway.”

The first foreign leader to react was the US President Donald Trump, who said in answer to a media query, that the escalation was “a shame”.

“We just heard about it as we were walking in the doors of the Oval… I guess people knew something was going to happen based on a little bit of the past. They’ve been fighting for many, many decades. And centuries, actually, if you think about it. I hope it ends very quickly,” he said at the White House.

Notably, Trump did not condemn India’s air strikes, nor did he explicitly call for Pakistan to refrain from retaliation.

In contrast, the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres called for military restraint from both South Asian neighbours. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan,” UNSG’s spokesperson told reporters

Meanwhile, India began a diplomatic outreach to other countries to brief them about the strikes. Sources confirmed that Indian officials had spoken to their counterparts in the US, UK, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Russia, and several other countries.

The Indian Embassy in Washington issued a press release stating that “shortly after the strikes, NSA Shri Ajit Doval spoke with US national security adviser and secretary of state Marco Rubio, briefing him on the actions taken.”

Mirroring the statement released from New Delhi, the press release described the strikes as “measured, responsible, and designed to be non-escalatory in nature,” emphasising that no civilian, economic, or military targets were hit. “Only known terror camps were targeted,” it added.

The embassy’s statement went slightly beyond the Indian government’s narrative of the military operation. It noted that India had “credible leads, technical inputs, survivor testimony, and other evidence” indicating the “clear involvement of Pakistan-based terrorists” in the Pahalgam terror attack.

“It was expected that Pakistan would take action against terrorists and the infrastructure that supports them. Instead, during the fortnight that has gone by, Pakistan has indulged in denial and made allegations of false flag operations against India,” said India’s diplomatic mission in Washington.

Pakistani media has quoted sources as saying Rubio contacted his Pakistani counterpart this morning "to discuss the prevailing situation following India’s missile strikes". The conversation apparently focused on regional stability and the rising tensions between India and Pakistan.

On his part, Rubio tweeted that he is "monitoring the situation between India and Pakistan closely" and that he echoed  Trump's comments  " that this hopefully ends quickly and will continue to engage both Indian and Pakistani leadership towards a peaceful resolution."