Amid rising tensions between New Delhi and Islamabad over the terror attack in Pahalgam in which 26 people were killed by terrorists having links to Pakistan, US Secretary Marco Rubio spoke to Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and India's foreign minister S Jaishankar on Thursday (May 8).

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Rubio during his conversation with both the leaders urged them to show restraint and emphasised the need for immediate de-escalation.

US State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce while addressing the media said, "This morning Secretary Marco Rubio spoke with Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif and EAM Dr S Jaishankar. In both calls, the Secretary emphasised the need for immediate de-escalation and called for an end to the violence. He expressed US support for direct dialogue between India and Pakistan and encouraged continued efforts to improve communications ."

"The real focus of the Secretary of State is that this should not escalate. This has been a key framework. This has been an issue for decades and with what we saw over the last few weeks, after the terrorist attack. It was not surprising but very, very disappointing. It should not escalate and communication was fundamentally key that there should be talks, there should not be silence, and that America was at the center of this in speaking with a variety of leaders of both countries over the last two days ," she further said.

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US wants perpetrators of Pahalgam attack to be held accountable

Speaking further the US State Department Spokesperson said that Pakistan has urged for an independent investigation of the Pahalgam terror attack and that the Washington wants perpetrators of the massacre to be held accountable.

"There's some discussion that Pakistan wants an independent investigation as to what has happened regarding the terrorist attack. We want the perpetrators to be held accountable and are supportive of any efforts to that end...We continue to urge India and Pakistan to work towards a responsible solution in this. We also want to say that what matters in this particular instance right now is that the phone calls happened and we are remaining engaged with both governments at multiple levels. We will not engage in the nature of discussing what the conversations have been or what we've conveyed,; she said.

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Bruce on Pakistan harbouring terrorists

On being asked whether the United States supports India's view of Pakistan harbouring terrorists Bruce said, "Obviously in today's world, that's a call that we have been making for decades. It is the dynamic that we've seen in the Middle East disrupting lives and clearly what happened in Kashmir is awful and we've all send our condolences. The world has rejected the nature of that kind of violence."