Islamabad
\nDefence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday said that India would be \u201crelegated to history\u201d and its geography \u201cchanged\u201d if it attempted any future misadventure against Pakistan. In an interview on the Geo News programme \u2018Capital Talk\u2019, Asif said, \u201cAs a nation, India thinks that its esteem has been damaged.\u201d
\nThe defence minister was referring to last year\u2019s confrontation with India, beginning with the April 22 Pahalgam attack and the subsequent military conflict \u2014 which resulted in a resounding victory for Pakistan \u2014 until the ceasefire on May 10.
\nReflecting on last year\u2019s standoff with India, Asif said that Pakistan\u2019s armed forces had given India a \u201cdevastating\u201d response.
\n\u201cIf India attempts any misadventure against Pakistan, it would be relegated to history and its geography would be changed,\u201d the defence minister asserted.
\nThe defence minister also criticised the recent remarks made by Indian Army Chief General Upendra Dwivedi, in which he said that Pakistan had \u201cto decide whether they want to be part of geography or history or not\u201d.
\n\u201cBy making those kinds of remarks, the Indian army chief is trying to regain his lost respect,\u201d Asif maintained, adding that during Marka-i-Haq, India was significantly battered.
\nAsif also commented on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) secretary general\u2019s remarks, calling for keeping the window for dialogue between Islamabad and New Delhi open.
\n\u201cThere are also various critical voices against the government in India,\u201d he said, adding that the stance of the Indian army and civil society differs.
\nHe said that Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka, which India had considered its \u201cextension,\u201d did not enjoy the same relationship with it as before. \u201cIndia is now facing embarrassment on the foreign front,\u201d he added.
\nMeanwhile, he said that Pakistan had achieved \u201ca highly reputable status\u201d in the region.
\nWhile responding to a question about a possible nexus between India and Israel against Pakistan, the defence minister said that there could be a resemblance in the objectives of India and Israel.
\n\u201cIsrael doesn\u2019t want anyone more powerful in this region other than its partner, India.\u201d
\nAsif added that the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) between Pakistan and India had been in place for 66 years and the recent Permanent Court of Arbitration decision on the IWT was in Pakistan\u2019s favour.
\nMoreover, he elaborated that the agreement had a strong mechanism for dispute resolution and could not be suspended unilaterally.<\/p>\n
\u2018War will not return to Iran\u2019
\nResponding to a question about whether the United States and Israel would launch attacks against Iran again, he said, \u201cMy hunch is that war will not happen again.\u201d
\nHe said that Israel desperately wanted attacks to be launched against Iran or perhaps two or three other countries.
\n\u201cThe American public\u2019s opinion is very clear about the Iran war. Their public does not want America to fight Israel\u2019s war,\u201d he said, adding that wars cannot be fought without public support.
\n\u201cRelationship with America is the real strength of Israel. Without America\u2019s support, Israel cannot remain stable.\u201d
\nHe said that a superpower like the US showing trust in Pakistan was an achievement, adding that Iran also trusts Pakistan.
\nThe defence minister also said that Pakistan\u2019s brotherly countries, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait, China and Russia, do not want war to return to Iran.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Islamabad Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Monday said that India would be \u201crelegated to history\u201d and its geography \u201cchanged\u201d if it attempted any future misadventure against Pakistan. In an interview on the Geo News programme \u2018Capital Talk\u2019, Asif said, \u201cAs a nation, India thinks that its esteem has been damaged.\u201d The defence minister was referring …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":87948,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-97916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-national"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97916"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97916\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97939,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97916\/revisions\/97939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}