September 1, 2005 was a remarkable day in the history of Pakistan and Israel, for the very first time the
foreign Ministers of both countries met and held talks in Turkey. Pakistan does not
recognize Israel as it’s a Jew
country that has occupied some parts of the Palestinian state. Pakistan is an important and
strategic country of the Muslim world, at the same time Israel is also a vital and strategic country of the Jews and western world. Since 1947 after the independence of Pakistan there had many debates in the country whether to recognize Israel or not but the
result was negative Pakistan considers the withdrawal from Gaza as a smart, important and problem solving move by the Israeli government. Pakistan
government believes that this positive move by Israel government has resulted in the
meeting between the foreign Minster of Pakistan and Israel in Turkey.
Foreign Ministers of both the countries meet twice last week in Turkey, the second meeting which lasted for more then two hours was made public. The Israeli government believes that the meeting with Pakistan was a historic meeting and this kind of meetings will further result in recognition of Israel by Pakistan and the Arab Muslim countries. Pakistan continuously says that this kind of positive steps by Israel will always be welcomed by Pakistan and will also result in greater engagement with Israel. At the same time Pakistani government declares that there has been no to u turn in the foreign policy of Pakistan. Pakistan government states that this meeting does not mean that Pakistan is going to recognize Isreal.Pakistan is of the view that it will not recognize Israel until Jerusalem becomes the capital of an independent Palestinian state.
This meeting also faced some criticism by some religious political parties in Pakistan. These parties consider that the government has shifted from its foreign policy towards Israel. They also believe that such kind of meetings and recognition of Israel is not in the vital interest of the nation. The Pakistani government has declared that it will only consider of recognizing Israel after an independent Palestinian state come into being.
Pakistan has many strategic concerns about Israel as well, Pakistan never recognized Israel but India recognized Israel in 1992 and is now enjoying strong strategic and defense relations with Israel. Some people believe that the normalization of relations of Pakistan with Israel will result in better relations between the two countries and will also improve Pakistan’s ties with the west.
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