No need for interlocutor between India, Pakistan, PMO clarifies - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The Government on Sunday evening clarified that there was no need of any third party intervention between India and Pakistan. The Prime Minister's Office has stated that there is no need for interlocutor between India and Pakistan, said a Doordarshan report on Sunday evening. The PMO's statement came after a statement made by Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor about Saudi Arabia's possibility of being an interlocutor between India and Pakistan. Private channel earlier reported government sources in New Delhi as saying that they were unhappy over Tharoor's comments. Tharoor's remarks have caused considerable unhappiness in Government and it is likely that the matter will be brought to Prime Minister's attention, the report further quoted Government sources as saying. Tharoor who earlier said that Saudi Arabia could be a "valuable interlocutor" between India and Pakistan later clarified that he did not mean that Saudi Arabia should be a mediator between the two countries. Later, clarifying his reported remarks Shashi Tharoor on Sunday twitted: "Good day of mtgs, marred in some Indian media by misunderstanding of word "interlocutor". An interlocutor is someone u spk to, nothing more." Tharoor was meeting a Saudi Arabia delegation in Riyadh when he made the remark.