Pakistan-Israel in landmark talks

[ekrem]

The foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel have for the first time held publicly acknowledged talks.

After the talks Pakistan's foreign minister said that his country had decided to "engage" with Israel after Israel's withdrawal from Gaza.

Israel's foreign minister described the talks, held in the Turkish city of Istanbul, as a "historic meeting".

Pakistan has emphasised that the meeting does not mean the recognition of the state of Israel.

"Pakistan attaches great importance to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza," Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri said at a news conference after the talks.

"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.

Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio: "We are talking about a tremendous significance, not just in regards to our relations with Pakistan, but the entire Muslim world."

Mr Shalom told reporters that he hoped the talks would lead to "a full diplomatic relationship with Pakistan as we would like it with all Muslim and Arab countries."

Before the meeting Pakistan's President Musharraf spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. Both supported the move to hold talks, Pakistan says.

Opposition

Meanwhile, the leader of the six-party alliance of Islamic parties in Pakistan told the BBC news website that the meeting went "against Pakistan's national interest as well as state policy."

Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), said "It goes against a policy that Pakistan has been pursuing from the very beginning."

Both sides played down the possibility of these talks leading immediately to Pakistan's recognition of Israel.

"It is premature to speak about establishing diplomatic relations, but it is definitely a step towards normalization of relations," the spokeswoman for the Israeli embassy, Sharon Bar-Li Saar, told AFP news agency.

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said Pakistan will only recognise Israel when a state of Palestine has been created with Jerusalem as its capital.

The talks between Mr Kasuri and Mr Shalom follow Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza strip last month.

Reports suggest the talks are the result of a series of informal contacts between the two countries.

"There have been contacts on different levels with Pakistani officials for several years," former Israeli ambassador to Washington Zalman Shoval told Associated Press.

The talks also follow the announcement that Pakistani President Musharraf will address a conference of the influential American Jewish Congress while in New York for the United Nations General Assembly in September.

Strategic concerns

Pakistan has previously linked the question of its recognition of Israel to the establishment of a Palestinian state.

But in July 2003 President Musharraf called for a national debate on the possibility of opening diplomatic ties with Israel.

It goes against a policy that Pakistan has been pursuing from the very beginning.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA)
The head of the governing Pakistan Muslim League party recently said the Arab world would benefit from Pakistan and Israel establishing relations.

Pakistan has never recognised the state of Israel, but its neighbour India opened diplomatic ties with Israel in 1992.

Since then, India and Israel have developed closer bilateral relations including significant levels of defence cooperation.

In March 2004 the two countries finalised a $1bn deal for the supply of three early warning radar systems to India.

At the time, analysts suggested that the sale had concerned India's regional rival Pakistan.

Turkey, host to Thursday's talks, is one of only a handful of Muslim countries that have full diplomatic ties with Israel.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/...sia/4203788.stm

 

[ekrem]

i have also read that in america there will be a "World-Jewish"-Congress were Pakistans Musharraf is invited.

Great steps, and i hope this will ensure a little bit more Israels Security.

Pakistans Foreign Minister says, that this meeting did not mean that Pakistan recognizes Israel but the direction to it has now been made with the Talkings in Istanbul.

 

[HorhayAtAMD]

A spokesman for Pakistan's foreign ministry said Pakistan will only recognise Israel when a state of Palestine has been created with Jerusalem as its capital.

Then I guess Pakistan will never recognize Israel since Palestine will have Jerusalem as its capital only after Israel has been wiped completely from the face of the earth.

 

[ekrem]

do not see it pessimistic HorhayATM




A summit between Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf in New York later this month will be dependent on domestic Pakistani and Arab world reactions to the public meeting Thursday between the two countries' foreign ministers, a senior diplomatic official said Thursday.

The official said it was too early to discuss such a Sharon-Musharraf summit, even though Musharraf personally initiated Thursday's meeting, and Sharon okayed it.

Sharon dispatched Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom to Istanbul on Wednesday night, where he had dinner with his Pakistani counterpart Khurshid Kasuri. They met again Thursday morning but this time, for the first time, ended that meeting by making it public and holding a press conference.

Shalom hailed the meeting as a "historic first" and said that after the Gaza pullout, it was "time for all of the Muslim and Arab countries to reconsider their relations with Israel."

"I am sure that this meeting will be followed by more meetings in the future," Shalom said. "We hope that finally it will lead to full diplomatic relations with Pakistan, as we would like with all Muslim and Arab countries."

Kasuri called the meeting "a gesture to underscore the importance that we in Pakistan attach to Israel ending its occupation of Gaza." "It is important that Israel is encouraged to continue to pursue the course of peace" and end its occupation, he said.

"The meeting today does not mean recognition," Kasuri noted. "That stage will come following progress toward the solution of the Palestinian problem."

Musharraf, who faces stiff opposition in Pakistan by a radical Islamic party to the move, quickly downplayed its significance and said that it did not mean that Pakistan was recognizing Israel.

Musharraf, speaking to reporters in the southwestern Pakistani city of Quetta, said that while the talks in Istanbul were "the first formal contact between our two countries," they did not represent recognition of Israel.

"We will not recognize Israel until it resolves the Palestinian issue," he said.

Nevertheless, in Jerusalem diplomatic officials said that the importance of an open and public meeting between the two foreign ministers should not be underestimated.

The official said that an important signal was sent when Pakistan – which is the only Islamic country with nuclear weapons, is home to the world's third largest Muslim population and is an important symbol for both the Islamic and developing worlds – was willing to turn up for a public meeting with Israel.

Officials in the Prime Minister's Office hailed the development as a "reaping of the fruits of disengagement" even before the withdrawal from Gaza has been completed.

"Strategically it is very important for us to have contact with the outer circle of Muslim countries," one official said. "The fact that Pakistan was willing to do this, even though the heart of al-Qaida is located there, is important. There is no doubt that US pressure had something to do with it, but we welcome any Muslim country that wishes to have ties with us."

The ministers met in Istanbul at the Four Seasons Hotel, a former Ottoman prison not far from Topkapi Palace, seat of the Ottoman sultans for almost 400 years.

Israeli officials said that Musharraf called Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who then called Sharon to arrange the meeting. Turkey, which has often said in the past that it would like to play a more active role in the peace process, was chosen as a neutral venue at Musharraf's suggestion and was happy to oblige
Though secret meetings have been held between Israeli and Pakistani officials for months, and though Israeli and Pakistani officials would often shake hands at various international meetings, this was the first time that the Pakistanis were willing to go public with the discussions.

Nevertheless, in recent weeks there were some signals that something dramatic was afoot. For instance, Musharraf recently accepted an invitation to address an American Jewish Congress Council for World Jewry gathering in New York next week. And the Pakistani Foreign Ministry announced this week that a high-level Pakistani delegation would visit Gaza and Jerusalem.

The Pakistani Foreign Ministry said that Musharraf discussed the move beforehand with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and got their approval.

After the meeting, Shalom said he hoped the two countries could announce the formalization of ties during the UN General Assembly meeting starting on September 14.

"We still have to finalize several issues before a formal announcement, issues I would rather not elaborate on at this time," Shalom told Israel Radio after meeting Kasuri.

In a Channel 2 interview Shalom said, "This is the time, after the disengagement, for tightening our ties with the Arab world. There is no better time than this."

Shawkat Sultan, a spokesman for Musharraf, told Israel Radio, however, that it was too early to speak of diplomatic relations. This would happen after a sovereign Palestinian state was established and after consultations were held with other Muslim countries, he said.

Shalom called Pakistan's diplomatic act "a brave move." "I told them that our relations with India were not at the expense of relations with other countries like Pakistan," Shalom emphasized.

"This is a good time, the positive atmosphere could lead to ties with other Muslim nations. Israel's international image is excellent," Shalom said.

According to Shalom, "Meetings such as this are a source of great encouragement and hope to the Israeli people – that through our efforts we are able to open new channels of dialogue and build understanding between us and all the peoples of the world, including the Muslim nations."

The foreign minister added that "such contacts also help strengthen the moderates on the Palestinian side – those who recognize that dialogue and acceptance must always be preferred to hatred, terror and extremism."

"It is no coincidence that this meeting took place here in Turkey, this great Muslim democracy, and Israel's long-standing friend," he said. "Israel's relations with Turkey are proof that Israel can enjoy good and mutually beneficial relations with our Muslim neighbors."

A spokesman for the Al-Jamaya-Islamiya Muslim organization in Islamabad told Al-Jazeera that this was a "black day for the Pakistani people" and that they would not support Musharraf's diplomatic move.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1125541481169&apage=1

 

[ekrem]

in further strategies you can question these developments as IRAN is planning Oil Pipeline through Pakistan to India and china.

So it is good for future developments to have Pakistan cloeser to western world.

as india is becoming superpower in future.


also USA now selling 75 F-16 to Pakistan.

 

[dilloduck]

in further strategies you can question these developments as IRAN is planning Oil Pipeline through Pakistan to India and china.

So it is good for future developments to have Pakistan cloeser to western world.

as india is becoming superpower in future.


also USA now selling 75 F-16 to Pakistan.

Yup---I wonder if all the folks who get rich from oil and arms trade find all the wars a barrier to their progress or something that helps them form alliances to get richer.

 

[ekrem]

Yup---I wonder if all the folks who get rich from oil and arms trade find all the wars a barrier to their progress or something that helps them form alliances to get richer.

yes, but as i know, these f-16 are not up-to-date, being block-30. so old technology.
but usa also giving them spuruance-detroyer class, (anti-submarine).

 

[ekrem]

With possible US support, Pak may abandon pipeline

PTI | September 12, 2005 | 17:05 IST

Pakistan may seek United States' co-operation for the installment of four 1,000 MW nuclear power reactors to overcome any energy crisis, in return for abandoning the Iran-Pakistan-India�pipeline.

President Pervez Musharraf� may discuss this matter during his forthcoming talks with his President George W Bush, a media report said.

The report in the Daily Times newspaper came as Musharraf reached New York, where he would hold talks with Bush, besides Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and other world leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.



A senior US official has already ruled out Washington extending a nuclear deal similar to the one reached with India on civilian nuclear energy with Pakistan.

Indian and Pakistani leaders have time and again said the IPI project is in the interest of both countries.�If�US pressure on Pakistan increased, however, it has plans to seek American cooperation, which said.

Pakistan has already made plans to increase its nuclear capacity to generate 8,500MW of nuclear power from the current nuclear power capacity of� 427MW, by 2020. The country needs gas and electricity to sustain its current economic growth for the next 10 years, the official in the Planning Division said.

http://in.rediff.com/news/2005/sep/12pipeline.htm