Pakistan, Israel shake hands
dailytimes.com.pk
Pakistan ready to ‘engage’ Israel: Kasuri
* Foreign Minister meets Israeli counterpart in Istanbul
* Says talks possible because of Gaza evacuation
* Israel hoping for broader diplomatic ties with Muslim world
ISTANBUL: Signalling a diplomatic breakthrough, Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said on Thursday that his country had decided to ‘engage’ with Israel in recognition of its withdrawal from Gaza.
Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, speaking in Istanbul after the first public high-level talks between the two countries, said Israel hoped to use the meeting as a springboard for broader diplomatic relations with the Muslim and Arab world, agencies reported.
Kasuri said his country had decided to ‘engage’ with Israel because of what it saw as the beginning of the end of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories, but he stopped short of calling Thursday’s talks a prelude to official ties. “Pakistan attaches great importance to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza,” Kasuri said in a statement read at a joint news conference with Shalom.
“We see this development as the beginning of the process of (ending) Israeli occupation and establishing a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security,” he said.
Shalom said Israel hoped the meeting would “finally lead to a full diplomatic relationship with Pakistan as we would like to see with all Arab countries, but of course it needs to be done step by step”.
“We made a huge breakthrough today,” Shalom said. “This is the appropriate time for all the Muslim and Arab countries to reconsider their relations with Israel. We think it will be a very positive signal to Israeli and Palestinian public opinion that there are some fruits from this withdrawal from Gaza. This meeting is extremely significant and we hope that it will be the prelude to relations at the same level we have with India. We hope that there will soon be visits by delegations from my ministry to Pakistan, which will be swiftly followed by the normalisation of relations between our two countries.”
Saying Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had welcomed Pakistan’s diplomatic opening with Israel, Kasuri made clear the decisive factor was Sharon’s evacuation from Gaza last month.
Analysts believe another key Pakistani motive is to moderate growing military ties between Israel and India.
Diplomats say Israel and Pakistan had held informal contacts in recent months.
Turkey has warm ties with both Israel and Pakistan and has been trying to act as a bridge between the two countries, an Israeli diplomatic source said.
A Pakistani newspaper said Islamabad had told the Turkish government it wished to arrange the meeting in Turkey as a neutral site.
Daily Times Monitor: Talking to Aaj television channel, Kasuri said the meeting should not come as a surprise, as both governments had been in contact on the quiet. He said the only difference now was that the contact had been made public. He also said the cabinet and parliament would be taken into confidence before recognising Israel.
FMs hold historic meeting with Turkish facilitation in Istanbul;
Tel Aviv hopes for diplomatic ties
By Mariana Baabar
ISLAMABAD/ISTANBUL: History was made in Istanbul on Thursday when Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri met his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, in what is a first official rendezvous between the only two ideological states in the world.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoga facilitated the meeting. An announcement in this regard was made simultaneously by Kasuri in Istanbul and Foreign Secretary Riaz Muhammad Khan in Islamabad at press briefings.
The two foreign ministers hailed the breakthrough meeting — with Israel hoping that it would lead to the establishment of diplomatic ties — at a joint press briefing before shaking hands for news photographers with a smile.
The Associated Press reported that the meeting was held at the Fours Seasons Hotel, a former Ottoman prison, not far from Topkapi Palace. Security was extremely tight with Turkish and Israeli security officials searching bags and even disassembling photographers’ cameras.
Shalom and Kasuri, informally met on Wednesday night at a dinner in Istanbul, Israeli officials said. Notably, the initiative to meet publicly with the Israeli official came from Pakistan. According to AP, the meeting in Istanbul was held at the initiative of President Pervez Musharraf and was expected to be followed by confidence building measures.
Neither the press statement from Istanbul nor that handed out at the Foreign Ministry here acknowledged the Israeli foreign minister by name — only his designation was mentioned. "The meeting with Israeli foreign minister here in Istanbul today is a gesture to underscore the importance that we in Pakistan attach to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza.
"We see this development as the beginning of the process of vacation of Israeli occupation and the establishment of Palestinian state living side by side with Israel in peace and security. This step can thus well lead to durable peace in the region," Kasuri said in the statement.
Islamabad’s stance: Both he and the foreign secretary took pains to emphasise the meeting did not in any way mean that Pakistan was ready to recognise Israel. "Pakistan’s position on the Palestinian issue remains unchanged. We stand by our Palestinian brothers and sisters in their cause for the establishment of an independent state in Palestine with al-Quds as its capital.
"We will continue to support all efforts towards that objective including the quartet roadmap and the solemn declaration of the Arab League Summit of March 2002," Khan said. Kasuri linked the decision to open talks to the pullout of settlers from Gaza, which was completed 10 days ago, the first time Israel has ever evacuated its citizens from parts of the occupied Palestinian territories.
"Pakistan gives great importance to the developments in Israel and the Gaza Strip," Kasuri told reporters after the talks. "Pakistan has therefore decided to engage with Israel," he said, without elaborating.
Khan observed that Islamabad had sent a strong signal to Tel Aviv that its gesture should demonstrate to Israel the Islamic world would respond positively if it is ready to accept the imperatives of peace by respecting the fundamental right of the Palestinians to live in freedom and peace in their own homeland.
Khan disclosed he was in contact with his counterparts in other friendly countries of the region close to Israel or those who are directly concerned with the Palestinian issue about the breakthrough meeting. Khan was asked why parliament, which was in session, was bypassed while taking such a big policy decision.
"This is a subjective assessment. There is no change in our policy on Israel. Parliament is free to debate any policy. All along, the foreign minister and myself have been interacting with parliamentarians on matters of foreign policy to explain its various aspects," he said, adding the meeting was only a different approach to achieve a target and its objectives had to be adjusted to the prevailing political circumstances.
Giving the background of the meeting, Khan said during his visit last May, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had discussed with Musharraf how Pakistan could help with the peace process in view of the important position it enjoys internationally and within the Islamic world and how Pakistan could impress upon Israel the need for moving forward and respecting the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people.
"President Mahmoud Abbas also invited a delegation from Pakistan to visit the Palestinian territories. These sentiments were also publicly expressed by him," he added. When asked how Pakistan was expected to mediate in the Middle East without formal recognition of Israel, Khan said this was not a question of mediation.
"This is a gesture, which will encourage Israel to respond more positively to the aspirations of the Palestinian people and comes at a time when Israel has vacated Gaza," he explained. The foreign secretary said that Pakistan was neither in a position to broker peace in the Middle East nor to come up with another peace plan.
"A peace plan already exists and we do not need another one and also there are UN resolutions on the issue. Some of our good friends have supported this gesture," he added. Agencies add: Denying any pressure, the foreign secretary said the initiative was consistent with the important role Pakistan continued to play in the Islamic world for peace and security and in the interest of promoting the settlement of longstanding issues that continue to torment Islamic societies.
He praised the government of Turkey for facilitating the meeting. Israel upbeat Israel was enthusing greater hope in the meeting. "I have said to the representatives of numerous Arab and Islamic states that our withdrawal from Gaza would be the right time for the establishment of diplomatic relations," Shalom told Israeli public radio from Istanbul.
"This meeting is extremely significant and we hope that it will be the prelude to relations at the same level we have with India. We hope that there will soon be visits by delegations from my ministry to Pakistan, which will be swiftly followed by the normalisation of relations between our two countries," he added.
Shalom predicted more contacts with his Pakistani counterpart at this month’s annual UN General Assembly meeting. A foreign ministry spokesman stressed that Israel did not want any diplomatic breakthrough to damage ties with Pakistan’s arch-rival and neighbour India with whom Israel enjoys close relations.
Shalom said the meeting heralded a new era in bilateral ties. "This is a historic meeting. We see this meeting as the beginning of a new period, the beginning of open and useful mutual relations," the Israeli minister said, praising the "courage" of President Musharraf in "supporting peace between Israel and the Muslim World."
Israeli diplomatic sources in Turkey said the two countries were looking to "normalise ties" in a bid to set up diplomatic relations and that a formal agreement could be announced at the UN General Assembly later this month, to be attended by leaders of both countries. "It is premature to speak about establishing diplomatic relations, but it is definitely a step towards normalisation of relations," the spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy, Sharon Bar-Li Saar, told AFP.
Israel currently has full diplomatic relations with only three Arab states — Mauritania, Egypt and Jordan — and a handful of Muslim majority states including Turkey.
Although Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas made no public comment, Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath said: "We don’t think it is the right time to offer Israel gifts before it proves its real commitment to peace."
He said the Palestinian Authority was "worried" about Pakistan’s first high-level diplomatic contact with Israel as the Jewish state continues to occupy east Jerusalem and the West Bank. "It is not good to give Israel gifts before it really implements the peace process, not only in Gaza, but in Gaza, the West Bank and Jerusalem," Shaath told reporters.
"The right time for this relationship with Israel is after Israel withdraws from... all land occupied in 1967 and solves the refugee issue," Shaath said, adding that he thought Abbas was of the same opinion. The West Bank leader of Islamist movement Hamas denounced the meeting and urged Islamic and Arab states not to fall into the trap of seeing the Gaza pullout as synonymous with the end of occupation.
"We condemn any relationship between an Islamic state and the Israelis and we ask Pakistan to go back on this agreement, especially as the Palestinian people have not yet been given their rights," said Hamas leader Hassan Yussef. |
