Politics
Trump Claims 350% Tariff Threat Averted Pakistan-India Nuclear Conflict
In a special address at the Saudi investment conference on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump once again claimed he prevented a nuclear war between Pakistan and India — a crisis he said could have killed “millions.”
Trump shared the account with his characteristic boast about settling disputes, recounting how he allegedly handled what he described as an imminent armed clash in South Asia.
According to Trump, both countries were “going to go at it, nuclear weapons,” and he said he warned them that Washington would impose a massive tariff if they proceeded.
“I said that’s okay, you can go at it, but I’m putting a 350% tariff on each country,” he told the audience, adding that he refused to “have you guys shooting nuclear weapons at each other, killing millions of people, and having the nuclear dust floating over Los Angeles.”
He said leaders in both capitals initially pushed back, but he claimed he held firm: “They said, ‘We don’t like that.’ I said, ‘I don’t care if you like it or not.’”
Trump then recounted that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif called him to acknowledge the intervention.
“He actually said, ‘I saved millions,’” Trump said, adding that the praise was repeated “in front of Susie,” a reference to one of his longtime advisers. “He said, ‘President Trump saved millions and millions of lives.’”
Trump also said he received a call from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi shortly afterward.
“I got a call… saying, ‘We’re done,’” Trump claimed. “We’re not going to go to war.”
For Pakistan, the remarks are notable not only because of the nuclear angle but also because Trump rarely speaks so directly about his dealings with Islamabad.
The speech eventually shifted to other matters — including Sudan — with Trump saying Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had urged him to take on a dispute he “didn’t think was going to be so easy to do.”
“He said, ‘Yeah, thank you. Thank you to you,’” Trump remarked, explaining that it wasn’t even on his “charts” but that he would now “start working in Sudan.”
Still, the core of his address returned repeatedly to the same claim: that he used economic pressure — tariffs, primarily — to halt conflicts.
“Five of the eight were settled because of the economy, because of trade,” he said, insisting that no other US president would have used the same approach.
This is not the first time Trump has boasted about stopping a war between two nuclear-armed South Asian rivals.
It was actually the second time during Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman’s visit alone that he mentioned his “peacekeeping.”
Addressing a joint press conference with MBS, who was visiting the US for the first time in seven years, at the Oval Office, Trump said: “I’ve stopped eight wars… I’ve actually stopped eight wars.”
Expressing pride in halting eight conflicts across the globe, the US president on Wednesday claimed that he prevented a war from “restarting” between Pakistan and India.
Earlier this year, the two nations engaged in a military showdown, the worst between the old foes in decades, which was sparked by an attack on tourists in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam area, which New Delhi alleged was backed by Pakistan.
Islamabad denied involvement in the Pahalgam attack, which killed 26 men and offered to participate in a neutral probe into the deadly incident.
During the clashes, Pakistan downed seven Indian fighter jets, including three Rafale, and dozens of drones. After at least 87 hours, the war between the bitter rivals ended on May 10 in a ceasefire agreement brokered by the US.
The US president, during a White House media briefing last month, had said Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif credited him with preventing a catastrophic nuclear war with India that could have killed millions.
Trump asserted he had halted eight wars, including recent Gaza breakthrough, and is pushing to end the Ukraine conflict.
He also highlighted his broader diplomatic record. “Eight wars stopped in nine months — Pakistan-India, Israel-Iran, Rwanda-Congo, Ethiopia-Egypt, Armenia-Azerbaijan, and now Gaza.
I’m working on Ukraine next,” he had said, touting his mediation of a Gaza deal that saw 20 Israeli hostages freed and 2,000 Palestinian detainees swapped.
- US plan would reportedly require Kyiv to give up land.
- Kyiv would also have to accept curbs on military.
- France says peace cannot mean capitulation.
BRUSSELS/KYIV: President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has received the draft of a new US-backed plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine and expects to have talks with President Donald Trump in the coming days, Zelenskiy’s office said on Thursday.
Two sources told Reuters on Wednesday that Washington had signalled to Zelenskiy that Kyiv must accept the US-drafted framework to end the nearly four-year-old war, which includes territorial concessions and curbs on Ukraine’s armed forces.
European countries pushed back on Thursday against the plan, which sources said would require Kyiv to give up more land and partially disarm, conditions long seen by Ukraine’s allies as tantamount to capitulation.
“We are ready now, as before, to work constructively with the American side, as well as with our partners in Europe and around the world, so that the outcome is peace,” Zelenskiy’s office said in a statement on Telegram.
Zelenskiy’s talks with Trump would include discussion of the “key points required to achieve peace”, it said.
“The President of Ukraine outlined the fundamental principles that matter to our people, and following today’s meeting, the parties agreed to work on the plan’s provisions in a way that would bring about a just end to the war.”
Trump and Zelenskiy clashed in front of television cameras in a disastrous meeting for the Ukrainian leader at the White House in March, but talks went more smoothly when he visited the White House this summer.
Video shows Russian soldiers in Pokrovsk
The acceleration in US diplomacy comes at an awkward time for Kyiv, with its troops on the back foot on the battlefield and Zelenskiy’s government undermined by a corruption scandal. Parliament fired two cabinet ministers on Wednesday.
Moscow played down any new US initiative.
“Consultations are not currently underway. There are contacts, of course, but there is no process that could be called consultations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
He said Russia had nothing to add beyond the position President Vladimir Putin laid out at a summit with US President Donald Trump in August, adding that any peace deal must address the “root causes of the conflict”, a phrase Moscow has long used to refer to its demands.
With another winter approaching in the nearly four-year-old war, Russian troops occupy almost one-fifth of Ukraine and are poised to capture their first substantial city in nearly two years — the ruined eastern railway hub of Pokrovsk.
Video footage released by Russia’s defence ministry on Thursday showed its troops moving freely through the southern part of Pokrovsk, patrolling deserted streets lined with charred apartment blocks.
‘Peace cannot be capitulation,’ says France
European Union foreign ministers meeting in Brussels did not comment in detail about the US plan, which has not been made public, but indicated they would not accept demands for Kyiv to make punishing concessions.
“Ukrainians want peace – a just peace that respects everyone’s sovereignty, a durable peace that can’t be called into question by future aggression,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot. “But peace cannot be a capitulation.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said US special envoy Steve Witkoff had, during a phone call on Thursday, underlined “the importance of close coordination with Germany and our European partners” in talks to end the war.
The White House has not commented on the reported proposals. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on X that Washington would “continue to develop a list of potential ideas for ending this war based on input from both sides of this conflict”.
“…Achieving a durable peace will require both sides to agree to difficult but necessary concessions,” Rubio said.
A US Army delegation, led by Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and the Army’s Chief of Staff Randy George, was in Kyiv and expected to meet Zelenskiy late on Thursday.
They met Ukraine’s top military commander Oleksandr Syrskyi late on Wednesday. Syrskyi said the best way to secure a just peace was to defend Ukraine’s airspace, extend its ability to strike deep into Russia and stabilise the front line.
ABU DHABI: Abu Dhabi’s new Zayed International Airport has introduced a free SIM and internet service for all passengers arriving from abroad.
Each passenger will receive a complimentary SIM card loaded with 10GB of data, valid for 24 hours, allowing visitors to access essential services immediately after landing.
According to airport officials, the service will help passengers use maps, taxi apps, payment services, messaging and Abu Dhabi travel guides without delay.
Zayed International Airport is among the region’s fastest-growing aviation hubs, serving airlines from more than 30 countries, including Pakistan, and offering flights to more than 100 cities worldwide.
The new terminal has handled 23.9 million passengers up to September this year.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on Thursday adopted a resolution that called on Iran to provide it with access and information regarding its nuclear programme, as required under UN resolutions.
The vote came a day after the head of the IAEA renewed his call for Tehran to allow inspections at key nuclear sites attacked by Israel and the United States in June.
Tensions between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog have repeatedly flared in recent years and were further inflamed after a 12-day war in June that saw Israeli and US strikes on key Iranian nuclear facilities.
Since the war, agency inspectors have not been granted access to sites such as Fordo and Natanz, which were hit in the strikes, but they have been able to visit other sites.
Thursday’s resolution “urges Iran to comply fully and without delay with its legal obligations under […] UNSC resolutions and to extend full and prompt cooperation to the IAEA, including by providing such information and access that the Agency requests,” according to the text.
The vote was passed with 19 for, three against and 12 abstentions.
“We have performed a number of inspections, but we have not been able to go to the attack sites. I hope we will be able. Indeed, we have to go because this is part of Iran’s commitments,” IAEA head Rafael Grossi told reporters on Wednesday, after opening the regular board meeting of the Vienna-based agency.
“I hope we’ll be able to move in a constructive manner.”
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Wednesday evening rejected any cooperation with the IAEA “regarding the bombed sites”.
“We only cooperate regarding nuclear facilities that have not been affected, in compliance with IAEA regulations,” he stated on Telegram.
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