'We do not want to fight, particularly with a bigger country': Pakistan's US envoy

Islamabad’s envoy to the United States has said that his nation was not inclined towards a conflict with India as Pakistan was “a smaller country”. In an interview with Newsweek, Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh said, “We do not want to fight, particularly with a bigger country."

“We want peace. It suits our economic agenda; it suits our nationhood. It suits every objective that we have currently. But we want peace with dignity,” Sheikh added.

However, the ambassador warned that Pakistan “will die with dignity than survive with indignity” if a war was imposed.

Tensions between India and Pakistan are running high in the aftermath of the Pahalgam terrorist attack, in which 26 people were killed, most of them Hindu tourists. While India has not blamed Pakistan officially for the attack, its intelligence agencies believe Pakistani nationals were involved. A massive hunt for the terrorists is currently underway in Kashmir as intelligence sources believe they could still be holed up in the mountainous region.

The US has urged both sides to exercise restraint, with both US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio holding talks with their Indian counterparts on Thursday (May 1) and expressing support to New Delhi’s fight against terrorism.

According to a statement from the Indian Defense Ministry, Hegseth said that “the US stands in solidarity with India and supports India’s right to defend itself. He reiterated the strong support of the US government in India’s fight against terrorism.”

Pakistan envoy rakes up nuclear flashpoint rhetoric

In his interview, Rizwan Saeed Sheikh raked up the issue of Kashmir being the world’s highest nuclear flash point, a rhetoric often voiced by Pakistan to attract global attention.

“If we have a president who is standing for peace in the world as a pronounced objective during this administration, to establish a legacy as a peacemaker, or as someone who finished wars, defied wars and played a role in de-confliction, resolving the disputes, I don’t think there is any higher or flashier flash point, particularly in nuclear terms, as Kashmir,” Sheikh said.

The Pakistani envoy then urged US President Donald Trump to intervene and help defuse the situation.

Trump was one of the first world leaders to condemn the attack in Kashmir region; however, he has shown little interest in helping de-escalate the crisis. Last week, Trump said Pakistan and India “will get it figured out one way or the other, I’m sure of that.”