Trump encourages Pakistan, India to work out their differences

NEW YORK (AFP) - US President Donald Trump said that he encouraged India and Pakistan to work out their differences in separate meetings with their prime ministers this week. “I said,  Fellas, work it out. Just work it out,” Trump stated while addressing a press conference after attending the UN General Assembly (UNGA). “Those are two nuclear countries. They ve gotta work it out,” he said. Tensions have escalated this year between Pakistan and India, which have fought three full-fledged wars, two over the divided Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Last month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revoked the Muslim-majority region s autonomy and imposed a clampdown that has snapped off most internet and cellular communications to ordinary people. Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the US to take up Kashmir, but India has long refused outside mediation. On Sunday, Trump showed his support for Modi by attending a rally with him before Indian-Americans in Houston, where the Hindu nationalist leader accused Pakistan of fomenting extremism. On the other hand, PM Imran Khan has said that the international powers cannot remain silent on the Kashmir issue and the United Nations should resolve it. Interacting with the editorial board of The New York Times on Wednesday, he said that there is a danger of bloodshed in Occupied Kashmir and the world must act to avert this. He said that the main objective of his visit to UN headquarters is to apprise the world about human rights violations in the Occupied Kashmir due to Indian illegal and unilateral occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. PM Imran Khan told the NYT editorial board about the dangers to regional and international peace from the grave situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir created by India’s illegal annexation and its barbaric actions. Meanwhile, Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia held a trilateral meeting in New York to discuss ways to enhance cooperation in a broad range of areas.