WASHINGTON: Hours after Donald Trump's off-the-cuff offer to mediate on Kashmir touched off a firestorm in the diplomatic circuit, Trump administration mandarins, US lawmakers and foreign policy interlocutors began damage-control measures on Monday night to mollify New Delhi. US officials finessed his words to clarify that Washington still believes Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan, and US stands ready only to assist the two parties.

Amid an uproar over Trump stepping into the Kashmir quagmire, the state department's South Central Asia bureau that oversees US regional policy tweeted: "While Kashmir is a bilateral issue for both parties to discuss, the Trump administration welcomes #Pakistan and #India sitting down and the US stands ready to assist. "

The tweet was signed 'AGW', which presumably stands for Alice Wells, the acting assistant secretary of state for South Central Asia and the state department's pointperson for the region. A factsheet issued by the White House at the conclusion of talks between Trump and Pakistan PM Imran Khan also avoided all mention of Kashmir .

Trump's assertion, seen as fanciful even among US interlocutors, came after Khan publicly asked him to intervene in the matter. "Everyone who knows anything about foreign policy in South Asia knows that #India consistently opposes third-party mediation re #Kashmir. Everyone knows PM Modi would never suggest such a thing. Trump's statement is amateurish and delusional. And embarrassing," said Congressman Brad Sherman, tweeting that he had "just apologized" to Indian ambassador Harsh Shringla for Trump's "amateurish and embarrassing mistake" .

E liot Engel, chief of House Committee on foreign affairs, also phoned Shringla to reiterate his support for the long-standing US position on Kashmir, saying he supported dialogue between India and Pakistan but the dialogue's pace and scope can only be determined by India and Pakistan.

"He also reaffirmed that in order for dialogue to be meaningful, Pakistan must first take concrete and irreversible steps to dismantle the terror infra on Pakistan's soil," said a statement from his office .

The fact that the South Asia bureau had to finesse the President’s rambling remarks suggested even bureaucrats in the administration were caught unawares by Trump’s meandering excursion into the Kashmir quagmire.

