The violent crisis between India and Pakistan is exactly the kind of international emergency that would once have prompted a full-on US diplomatic drive to cool tempers and head off a wider war.

But while the US has acted as a mediator in previous crises in South Asia, exerting a calming influence that has helped to avert outright war, Washington may be too distracted by Ukraine and Gaza to be able to resolve the India-Pakistan clash,

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Washington's partner India and U.S. ally Pakistan have "gone tit-for-tat," and that he hoped the two nuclear-armed Asian neighbors could stop further escalations.