ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office (FO) on Tuesday rejected as fabricated reports claiming Pakistan was receiving pressure from the United States and other countries to establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
Publications, including Dawn and London-based online portal Middle East Eye, citing local media, have recently quoted Prime Minister Imran Khan as saying that Tel Aviv wielded “deep influence” in Washington and was behind “great pressure” on Islamabad from the US to recognise Israel — pressure that had become “extraordinary” during President Donald Trump’s presidency.
The efforts, if any, were part of a broader diplomatic push by President Trump and his administration committed to Israel, who earlier this year revealed the so-called Middle East peace plan recognising Jerusalem as its capital. The plan has been categorically rejected by the Palestinians.
In a statement issued Tuesday, FO spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that the prime minister had “clearly articulated Pakistan’s position that unless a just settlement of the Palestine issue, satisfactory to the Palestinian people, was found, Pakistan could not recognize Israel.”
PM Imran, in an interview with a German outlet last month, had dismissed the idea of normalisation of ties with Israel until the settlement of the Palestine dispute.
“Every country has its own foreign policy priorities. They have to think about their own people and it’s their decision. As for Pakistan, the founder of the nation, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, spoke in the 1940s about the Palestinian situation as a huge violation of human rights,” he had told Der Spiegel.
“Pakistan still takes this view. Unless there’s a just settlement, we cannot recognise Israel.”
The FO recalled that PM Imran, in a media interview last week, had stressed Pakistan’s policy in this regard was rooted in the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah.
“The prime minister’s remarks are an unequivocal reaffirmation of Pakistan’s position on the subject, leaving no room for baseless speculation,” he added.
The statement stressed Pakistan would continue to support a two-state solution, in line with relevant United Nations and Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) resolution, for a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East.
It added, per international law, Israel and Palestine should return to their pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of Palestine.
Recently, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain became the latest countries in the Arab region to formally establish diplomatic ties with Israel in deals brokered by the United States.
Before them, the only two Arab countries Israel has signed peace treaties with are Egypt and Jordan, in 1979 and 1994 respectively. Egypt and Jordan share borders with Israel and have both fought wars with Israel in the past.
