US president Donald Trump (AP photo)
NEW DELHI: In a striking echo of his predecessor, US PresidentDonald Trump on Wednesday made an embarrassing gaffe as he confused India with Iran. Twice. While repeating his rant about negotiating a ceasefire between New Delhi and Islamabad, he referred to India as Iran, calling it a nuclear nation.Trump claimed he threatened both nations with 200% tariffs if the conflict blew up into a full-fledged war.”If you look at Pakistan and Iran — I told them I was in the midst of negotiating a trade deal with Iran and Pakistan, and because of tariffs, they wanted to negotiate much differently. I heard they were shooting at each other, and then I said during one of my conversations, “Are you guys going to go to war?” I said, ‘Here’s a deal — you go to war, and I gotta put a 200% tariff and stop you from doing any business in the United States’. I said this to both of them, and within 24 hours, the war ended. That would have been a nuclear war.” Trump continues to blow a “ceasefire” trumpet despite India rejecting his claims and PM Modi firmly stating in Parliament that no global leader asked India to stop the attack. Sharing new details about India’s Operation Sindoor in Lok Sabha, PM Modi said that US Vice President JD Vance had called him on May 9, to inform him about a ‘huge’ impending strike by Pakistan. “On the night of 9th May, the Vice President of America tried to talk to me. He tried for an hour, but I was in a meeting with my army, so I could not pick up his call. Later, I called him back. The Vice President of America told me on the phone that Pakistan is going to launch a big attack. My answer was that if Pakistan has this intention, it will cost them a lot. If Pakistan attacks, we will respond by launching a big attack. This was my answer,” PM Modi told the Lower House.He further said that no leader anywhere in the world had asked India to stop its response, saying, “no global leader urged India to halt the operation.”“Operation Sindoor has not been called off yet and Pakistan remains on notice,” Modi said, adding that the neighbour’s nuclear bluff has been called and India would not succumb to nuclear blackmail.