By Asghar Ali Mubarak
ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday that recognition of Israel is not under consideration.Addressing a weekly news briefing in Islamabad, spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri reiterated that there is no change in Pakistan’s principled position on the issue.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has made it clear that unless a just settlement of the Palestine issue, satisfactory to the Palestinian people, is found, Pakistan cannot recognise Israel.
Referring to the dossier Pakistan has recently presented on India’s sponsorship of terrorism, he called upon the UN counter-terrorism bodies to proceed on the basis of evidence provided by Pakistan and urge India to renounce use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy. The spokesperson said the world bodies should also urge India to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism it has established to inflict terrorism on Pakistan, and stop the use of other countries’ soil for its terrorist activities directed against Pakistan.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Pakistani foreign ministry spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri “categorically rejected baseless speculation regarding possibility of recognition of the State of Israel by Pakistan”.
“Pakistan steadfastly supports the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination,” said the statement, which was in line with the country’s position on the conflict. “For just and lasting peace, it is imperative to have a two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions, with the pre-1967 borders, and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State.”
Questions have been raised on whether Pakistan would join Arab allies the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, who moved to normalise relations with Israel in September. A first Bahraini delegation visited Israel last week. On Monday, Israeli media reported Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had secretly travelled to Saudi Arabia a day earlier for talks with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Saudi’s foreign minister, however, denied the report and Netanyahu’s office did not comment on it. Since September, US President
Donald Trump’s administration has brokered agreements with the UAE, Bahrain and Sudan to normalise their relations with Israel.
