By Sushil Kutty
With Donald Trump at the helm of the United States, wars have become a joke. They finish quickly as lightning. India’s war with Pakistan lasted all of 4 days. The Iran-Israel war was over in 12 days. Gaza is a different take. But in India-Pakistan and Iran-Israel, a third country forced its views in with the President of that country causing confusion – US President Donald Trump.
Last Friday, Trump repeated that it was he who stopped the India-Pakistan war from going nuclear and that he did this by ordering his administration to “cancel all deals” with the two countries. Earlier, he had claimed that he offered them mouthwatering “sweetened trade deals” in lieu of war.
Problem is, Trump is always talking 19 to the dozen and he marks shifts with gay abandon. “We did some great work. India and Pakistan. That was going to be maybe nuclear. We did that. We did a lot of work. I don’t know if there’s ever been a president that’s done much more,” Trump said on Friday.
Trump was in an expansive mood. The US Supreme Court had just then limited the power of lower courts in a birthright citizenship case and President Trump couldn’t have asked for more. Without preamble, Trump repeated that he stopped a nuclear war by threatening that “Washington will stop trade” with Delhi and Islamabad.
“Serbia, Kosovo is going to go at it, going to be a big war. I said, ‘You go at it, there’s no trade with the United States…. That’s what happened with India and Pakistan. I was negotiating with both of them and I said…cancel all deals with India and Pakistan. They’re not trading with us because they’re in a war,” Trump said.
Who is lying, Prime Minister Narendra Modi or President Trump? India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri vouched for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Nobody so far, anybody from the Trump administration, has vouched for President Trump. Neither Vice President JD Vance nor Secretary of State Marco Rubio or Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The “ceasefire” between India and Pakistan was on the urgent request of Pakistan’s DGMO. Trump claims ‘the two countries called back’. I said, “Look, you want to have trade with the United States. It’s great, but you want to go and start using nuclear weapons…we’re not going to allow that. And they both agreed, both have great leaders…So we did a lot,” President Trump said.
India still hasn’t succumbed to Trump’s delusion. India also doesn’t call it a “ceasefire”. As far as India is concerned, it’s an “understanding” worked out on May 10 by the DGMOs of India and Pakistan. Also, as far as India is concerned, ‘Operation Sindoor’ hasn’t been called off, yet. If Pakistan enacts another instance of cross-border terrorism, all bets are off.
President Trump wants the Nobel Peace Prize and the USA is banking on wars to land President Trump the ‘Nobel Peace Prize”. Trump is desperate for a ceasefire. It didn’t happen with Russia-Ukraine and Trump made sure India and Pakistan went after each other for Trump to claim credit for a “ceasefire”.
It is another matter that India does not and will “never accept” mediation on Kashmir. Now, in the latest, President Trump says that but for him, Iran’s “Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei”, wouldn’t have been around. “I saved him from an ugly and ignominious death,” Trump said and Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi asked Trump to watch his “tone”.
While delivering a victory speech, Khamenei had said that the US President had “exaggerated events in unusual ways” the previous day. “If President Trump truly wishes to reach an agreement, he should set aside his disrespectful and unacceptable tone towards the Iranian Supreme leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of sincere supporters,” Araghchi posted to X.
Araghchi also said that the Israeli regime “had NO CHOICE but to RUN to Daddy” to avoid being “flattened by our Missiles”, adding that Iranians valued their independence and did not take kindly to “threats and insults”.
Khamenei said the US President needed the “exaggeration” and that “the Islamic republic won”, delivering “a severe slap to the face of America”, to which Trump shot back, “I saved Khamenei from an ugly death”, questioning Khamenei’s declaration of victory in the war against Israel, asking why the Supreme Leader had “blatantly and foolishly” claimed victory “when he knows his statement is a lie, it is not so. As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie,” Trump said.
Trump spoke the truth when he said Iran had been “decimated”, and that Iran’s three “evil nuclear sites” had also been “obliterated”. Trump also claimed he knew “exactly” where Khamenei was sheltered and that he had not allowed Israel and the US armed forces to take Khamenei’s life.
The fact is, despite these “facts” and clarifications, Trump still does not have a “ceasefire” to flaunt with and get a Nobel in return. Also, far less influential global leaders are holding the most-powerful man on the planet to ransom, putting a question mark on whether it is unilateralism or multilateralism that rules the world.
The US President said that he was “was working on possible removal of sanctions against Iran” and this would have given Iran a much better chance “at a full, fast, and complete recovery”, but had “dropped all work on sanction relief” after being “hit” by Khamenei’s statement of “anger, hatred, and disgust.”
Trump predicted bad things ahead for Iran. “They are always so angry, hostile, and unhappy, and look at what it has gotten them – A burned out, blown up Country, with no future, a decimated Military, a horrible Economy, and DEATH all around them.” The only problem is, such a dark prognosis will not fetch a Nobel Peace Prize for President Trump! (IPA Service)
