We have seen @POTUS's remarks to the press that he is ready to mediate, if requested by India & Pakistan, on Kashmi… https://t.co/WEVHyMhwXL — Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) 1563820127000

...that all outstanding issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally. Any engagement with Pakistan would req… https://t.co/ApwBL6nuxq — Raveesh Kumar (@MEAIndia) 1563820128000

India has never accepted third party mediation in Jammu & Kashmir! To ask a foreign power to mediate in J&K by PM… https://t.co/sIkr7F5mmA — Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) 1563818645000

I honestly don't think Trump has the slightest idea of what he's talking about. He has either not been briefed or n… https://t.co/bBP432G4nt — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) 1563817293000

WASHINGTON: A furore erupted on Monday as US President Donald Trump offering to mediate in the Kashmir issue, claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked him to help in the matter. The Indian government was quick to deny that the PM had ever done so, even as the opposition launched an attack on the issue.In remarks before pool reporters arrayed in the White House Oval Office ahead of his talks with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, Trump said he would “love to be a mediator” after Khan requested him to intercede in the matter, saying he would have Pakistan’s prayers if he could help resolve the issue.The ministry of external affairs issued a late-night denial, saying, “No such request has been made by PM Narendra Modi to the US President. It has been India’s consistent position that all issues with Pakistan are discussed only bilaterally. Any engagement with Pakistan would require an end to cross-border terrorism."Read also: Kashmir a bilateral issue between India, Pakistan, US state department saysBy then, CPM's Sitaram Yechury had dared Modi to rebut Trump, while Congress's Randeep Surjewala accused the PM of a "sacrilegious betrayal of the country's interests" and asked him to answer to the nation.Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted, "I honestly don't think Trump has the slightest idea of what he's talking about... That said, MEA should clarify that Delhi has never sought his intercession." PDP welcomed Trump's statement.US President Donald Trump claimed on Monday that he was with PM Narendra Modi two weeks ago and the Indian Prime Minister asked him if he (Trump) would like to be a “mediator or arbitrator.” He asked where and Modi, he claimed, said Kashmir.However, India has always maintained that Jammu and Kashmir is a bilateral dispute to be resolved between India and Pakistan. In fact, when the Chinese president Xi Jinping offered to be a facilitator during his talks with Modi at the SCO summit in June, Modi firmly rebuffed him by asserting it was a bilateral matter.“I think they would like it if I can help,” Trump rambled in an Oval Office interaction that kept going off the rails, saying he had heard so much about Kashmir being a beautiful place and right now there are bombs going off everywhere and how it is impossible to believe how two incredible countries with so many smart people could not resolve the issue.Trump's extended remarks came after Imran Khan directly and publicly sought his intervention.Trump also virtually threw India under the bus in Afghanistan, endorsing the claim by Pakistan, a country that is widely seen as having brought terrorism and violence to the landlocked country in an effort to establish strategic depth for itself, that it was intent on bringing peace to the country.“Pakistan can do a lot in Afghanistan…they are helping us a lot now,” Trump said, claiming that they did not do a lot in the past because they did not respect American Presidents and he did not blame them for it.Khan told Trump that a peace deal with the Taliban was closer than it had ever been. "We hope that in the coming days we will be able to urge the Taliban to speak to the Afghan government and come to a settlement, a political solution," Khan said.Trump spoke of possibly restoring $1.3 billion in American aid that he had cut last year.Earlier, Trump received Khan at the White House for talks Washington has said are aimed mainly at incentivizing Islamabad to give up its patronage of terrorism and work towards regional peace and stability, including facilitating US drawdown from Afghanistan. It appears that Khan may have linked US intervention on the Kashmir front for Pakistan’s help in a US exit from Afghanistan."I don't think Pakistan respected the United States in the past but they are helping us a lot now,” Trump said.Trump made no secret though of the main US agenda, telling reporters that Washington is working with Islamabad to find a way out of the war in Afghanistan. He also held out the possibility of restoring US aid to Pakistan, depending upon what is worked out, while offering to help Islamabad ease strained ties with India.The two leaders are scheduled to have a one-on-one meeting before being joined by their teams for delegation-level talks over a luncheon.Wearing a heavy shalwar-kameez on a hot summer afternoon, Khan arrived at the White House west wing portico in a black limousine to be greeted by Trump with a brief, business-like handshake before he was ushered inside for one-on-one talks with the US President in the Oval Office. Trump was alone, while Khan was accompanied by his foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi.Outside the White House, Khan’s supporters from his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) party cheered his arrival even as several disaffected groups of Pashtuns, Baloch, Mohajirs and other political groups demonstrated against his visit.The Trump-Imran Khan meeting, their first, was initiated from the US side by Senator Lindsay Graham, who met the Pakistan Prime Minister in the morning and tweeted, “In my opinion he (Imran Khan) and his government represent the best opportunity in decades to have a beneficial strategic relationship with the US. This will help us secure Afghanistan and the region long-term.”“Tremendous business opportunities exist between Pakistan and the US through a free trade agreement tied to our mutual security interests. It’s also our best chance in decades to reset the relationship between the US and Pakistan," Graham said.