This is a moment of the United States stepping in and claiming a more direct mediatory role than in other confrontations between India and Pakistan, says Elizabeth Threlkeld, director of the South Asia programme at the Stimson Center. “I think it’s important to recognise that the ceasefire was no sure thing, particularly as things escalated quite significantly in the past 24 hours. This was arguably the most serious crisis between the two sides since they got nuclear weapons,” she told Al Jazeera from Washington, DC.