After claiming to have solved eight wars so far, US President Donald Trump is looking for another feather in his cap to boast about. Addressing reporters on Friday, Trump talked about the ongoing Afghanistan-Pakistan conflict, and said he it would be an “easy one” for him to solve.
The President’s remarks come amid escalating border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and a fresh ceasefire violation by Pakistan, as claimed by Afghan officials late Friday night.
Referencing how he “solved” the India-Pak conflict back in May, Trump segued into the ongoing border clash in Afghanistan and said: “Although I do understand that Pakistan attacked, or there is an attack going on with Afghanistan. That’s an easy one for me to solve if I have to solve it.”
He yet again claimed to have solved multiple wars, including the brokering of a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, a claim New Delhi has pointedly rejected many times. Trump also lamented that despite “solving so many wars,” he was never awarded a Nobel Prize.
“Somebody got it who is a very nice woman. I don’t know who she is, but she was very generous. I don’t care about all that stuff. I just care about saving lives,” the President said, referring to this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado.
After an intense fighting at the border, both Pakistan and Afghanistan had recently agreed to a 48-hour ceasefire, attributing the “insistence” for the same to the other side.
However, Afghan officials claimed last night that Pakistan violated the ceasefire as it launched air strikes inside Afghanistan late Friday, killing at least 10 people. “Pakistan has broken the ceasefire and bombed three locations in Paktika” province, a senior Taliban official told news agency AFP, adding “Afghanistan will retaliate.”
At least three local Afghanistan cricketers were also killed in the fresh Pakistani strikes, the Afghanistan Cricket Board announced. The players belonged to the from Urgun District in Paktika Province, and were targeted in the “cowardly” attack, the cricket board said.
Earlier this week, the Afghanistan government had claimed to have captured 25 Pakistani army posts, with “58 soldiers killed” and 30 others wounded.
The flare-up was triggered by a blast in Kabul’s Abdul Haq Square last week, when Taliban minister Amir Khan Muttaqi was visiting India. Afghan officials had accused Pakistan of the violence but Pakistan didn’t acknowledge any role in those incidents.
Following the intense fighting, both sides agreed to a truce, which they recently extended till the conclusion of talks in Doha. Qatar was among the counties that had urged Kabul and Islamabad to exercise restraint and resolve their issues through dialogue.
