 "President Donald Trump addresses the Knesset, Israel's parliament, Monday, on October 13, 2025, in Jerusalem. AP File")
Amid escalating border tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan, US President Donald Trump on Monday said he was willing to step in to defuse the situation, citing what he described as his strong track record in conflict resolution.
The clashes, which began late Saturday and extended into Sunday morning, left 23 Pakistani troops dead, according to a Dawn report, citing the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), Pakistan’s military media wing.
In response, Pakistan claimed it had killed around 200 Taliban fighters and affiliated militants in retaliatory action.
Speaking aboard Air Force One en route from Washington to Tel Aviv, President Trump addressed the deteriorating situation, saying, “This will be my eighth war that I’ve solved. And I hear now there’s a war going on between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I said, ‘I’ll have to wait till I get back’. I am doing another one. Because I’m good at solving wars, I’m good at making peace and it is an honour to do it. I save millions of lives.”
The president’s remarks came as he travelled to Israel, where the first phase of a Trump-brokered Gaza peace plan is underway, including a prisoner-hostage exchange between Tel Aviv and Hamas. The initiative has received rare bipartisan praise in Washington.
When asked about how the Gaza deal might shape his legacy, Trump said, “Think about India-Pakistan. Think about some of the wars that were going on for years. We had one going for 31 (years), one going for 32 (years) and one going for 37 years. And I got every one of those done, for the most part, within a day. It’s pretty good.”
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More ShortsHe also claimed to have used economic pressure to broker peace in South Asia.
“With India and Pakistan, I said if you guys want to fight a war and you have nuclear weapons, I’m going to put big tariffs on you both; like a 100 per cent, a 150pc and 200pc … I had that thing settled in 24 hours. If I didn’t have tariffs you could have never settled that war,” claimed Trump.
Trump has often touted his role in ending a brief but intense conflict between India and Pakistan in May, triggered by an attack on Hindu tourists in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam.
India blamed Pakistan for the incident.
Trump’s latest comments also included a veiled jab at the Nobel Peace Prize committee.
Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was awarded the 2024 prize, a decision Trump appeared to challenge.
“In all fairness to the Nobel committee, it was for 2024 … But there are those that say you could make an exception cause a lot of things happened during 2025 that are done and completed and great. But I did this not for Nobel, I did this for saving lives,” he said.
Trump, now in the first year of his second term, has repeatedly suggested he deserves the Nobel Peace Prize, though many of his claims regarding conflict resolution have been met with skepticism by international analysts.
Despite that, his administration is now positioning itself to play a potential mediating role in the ongoing Afghanistan-Pakistan border crisis. Whether either side will welcome US involvement remains to be seen.
With inputs from agencies