Apr. 14, 2003- Afghanistan makes diplomatic overtures to Israel
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Afghanistan's foreign minister has approached his Israeli counterpart, expressing interest in normalizing relations between the two countries, an Israeli Foreign Ministry official said Monday.
Ministry spokesman Ron Prosor said the Afghan foreign minister, Abdullah Abdullah, informed Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom that Afghanistan was interested in working together with all "peace-loving countries". He could not say when the message arrived or through what channels it was delivered.
The two countries have never had diplomatic relations, but in informal talks in Kazakhstan last June, interim Afghan President Hamid Karzai told then-Israeli Housing Minister Natan Sharansky that a formal dialogue could get under way after Afghan elections, which the international community wants to see held next year.
After the fall of the Taliban, Afghan factions set up a transitional administration during December 2001 talks in Bonn, Germany. They also set out to purge themselves of their country's recent Islamic fundamentalist past.
Israel has diplomatic ties with three of Afghanistan's Islamic neighbors, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
It also has relations with another three central Asian Muslim states; Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan.
Compared to many Mideast countries, Israel sees the Asian states as having a less politicized approach to Islam and holding the potential to reduce Israel's isolation in the Muslim world.
"There is an Islam there with which we can have a constructive dialogue," Prosor said. "Our interest in diplomatic relations speaks for itself."
At the Kazakhstan meeting, Karzai told Sharansky he supported Israel's battle against terror groups, a Sharansky aide said at the time.
In February, American Jewish leaders visited Kazakhstan for a regional conference. Mortimer Zuckerman, head of the umbrella Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations came away impressed.
"They don't have the same attitudes that you find here in this region, in the Arab Middle East," he said after the visit."They want to demonstrate that." |
