NEW YORK – India’s move to revoke disputed Jammu and Kashmir’s specialstatus threatens to complicate US efforts to forge a peace deal with theTaliban in Afghanistan, says The Wall Street Journal (WSJ).

The newspaper also said Prime Minister Imran Khan’s “successful” visit toWashington, during which President Donald Trump offered to mediate thedecades-old dispute over the Himalayan state, might have factored in IndianPrime Minister Narendra Modi’s Kashmir move.

“The spike in tensions between Pakistan and India over the change ofKashmir’s status come as Taliban peace talks appear to have reached acritical final stage,” WSJ, a major US financial newspaper, said in adispatch from New Delhi on Wednesday.

It said, “Senior US officials flew into New Delhi and Islamabad—trips theyand their host countries said were planned before India acted on Monday—asWashington sought to build regional support for a critical agreement withthe Taliban that Pakistan is expected to play a key role in helping deliverand US officials hope India will support.”