NEW DELHI, 3 September 2003 — Palestinian Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath came out yesterday against proposals by Indian officials for closer cooperation between India, Israel and the United States on fighting terrorism.

In an interview with the Hindu newspaper, Shaath said India did not need to use Israel as an “intermediary” to forge close relations with the United States.

“I disagree with that. I know that is the position with some of your ministers,” Shaath told the paper when asked to respond to an idea being floated by Indian officials that India, the United States and Israel form an axis against terrorism.

The idea was mooted by India’s National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra during a visit to the United States in May.

“Such an alliance would have the political will and moral authority to take bold decisions in extreme cases of terrorist provocation,” Mishra said in an address to the American Jewish Community in Washington, according to the Press Trust of India.

Shaath, who gave the interview to the newspaper while on a visit to New Delhi at the weekend, said such an alliance was not necessary.

“I don’t think you need that intermediary. Many people who felt that Israel was the address for the United States failed.

“Secondly, again Israel would like to make it look like all the resistance it is facing from the Palestinians is terrorism, to make it look like 9/11, which is false,” Shaath said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.

“Identifying with that puts you in a position of being anti-Palestinian when there is no need to do so.”

Shaath wondered why India had not suggested such alliances with Morocco and Indonesia which too had been victims of terrorism. “Why just pick Israel? Palestinians were not subject to terrorism?” he asked.

India recognized Israel soon after the Jewish state’s creation in 1948 but for decades has been close to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, a frequent visitor to New Delhi.

India did not establish diplomatic relations with Israel until 1992 amid the then-flourishing Middle East process.

In recent years India and Israel have grown closer and have begun to cooperate on defense issues, with New Delhi now hoping to clinch big-ticket deals such as the acquisition of Phalcon air-borne early warning systems (AWACS) and Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile defense from Israel.