On Thursday, interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani vowed that Pakistan’s policy towards Israel would not shift from what it has been in the past.
The temporary foreign minister has stated, “There is no change in our policy regarding Israel,” adding that Islamabad’s policy is tied to the rights of the Palestinians.
Pakistanis worry that if they recognise Israel before the Palestinian situation is resolved, it will hurt their case on the decades-long dispute over Jammu and Kashmir.
They also support a “two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions as well as international law, with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as the capital of Palestine” and have severed connections with Tel Aviv.
This is Jilani’s second public speech on Israeli relations in the previous week. Pakistan’s foreign minister had previously said that the country’s choice on whether or not to recognise Israel will be driven by both Pakistani and Palestinian national interests.
Foreign Minister Jilani was replying to Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen, who had claimed that if Israel’s pact with Saudi Arabia went through, six or seven Muslim countries would make peace with the Jewish state.
Cohen told Israel’s KAN News that “peace with Saudi Arabia means peace with the greater Muslim world” right after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the UNGA, in which he called for diplomatic ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia as part of a “new Middle East.”
In answer to a question, Cohen said those countries are in Africa and Asia but did not specify which ones. Later, Cohen stated that only a select few had actually communicated with him directly. Jilani, though, denied meeting with his Israeli counterpart in his capacity as foreign minister.
After returning home from this year’s UNGA, Jillani addressed the media today and assured everyone that Pakistan would always put its “national interests on priority” when making decisions.
During their statements to the UNGA, he and Prime Minister Kakar had both elucidated their positions, he said. “Pakistan reiterated this stance in all relevant meetings” “Palestinians must be given independent state on pre-1967 borders,” he said.
The foreign minister insisted that the situation is analogous to the right of Kashmiris to self-determination. Our national interest necessitates this.
With Riyadh as the principal defender of the Palestinian cause for decades, an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia would reportedly put pressure on other countries like Pakistan to reevaluate their positions.
Although in 2005 the then-Pakistani and Israeli foreign ministers met in Turkey, Islamabad has consistently resisted calls to acknowledge Israel. However, without resolving the Palestinian issue, diplomatic ties with Israel faced persistent opposition and the process stalled.
