CAIRO/ISLAMABAD, 22 April 2007 — Pakistan’s President Pervez Musharraf made a surprise offer Friday to help resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in an interview with the pan-Arab satellite Television Al-Arabya.

Musharraf told the Dubai-based television that he would be willing to visit the Jewish state in order to help bring peace to the troubled Middle East.

Pakistan — a key ally in the US-led war against terrorism — has no formal diplomatic ties with Israel and supports a separate state for Palestinians with Jerusalem as its capital.

In the interview aired late Friday, Musharraf said he was “enthusiastic” to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and would go to Israel if his offer to be involved in a mediation process was accepted.

Musharraf said he could also start his talks first with the Palestinians, or “maybe in some third country ... going to Israel is also a possibility.”

“It will be an honor, if I can contribute in any way,” said Musharraf, although he has so far not been asked to mediate.

“If there was a role that I can play, and both sides accept that role, yes, indeed, I would like to play that role.”

The Pakistani leader suggested that the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will not be solved unless solutions for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict are found first, adding that these solutions would have an impact on the Mideast’s stability, and will also bring serenity and stability all over the region and beyond.

Pakistan has not yet been involved in any negotiations concerning the Arab region, but hosted talks in late February in Islamabad, attended by Egypt, Indonesia, Jordan, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, on issues ranging from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, to the war in Iraq and the standoff with Iran.

Musharraf is due to embark today on a four-country European tour that will conclude in Turkey where he is scheduled to hold talks with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai on quelling extremism and terrorism.

In the first week, Musharraf will visit Poland, Spain and Bosnia and Herzegovina to strengthen bilateral relations and enhance economic cooperation, the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad said.

These will be the first visits to the three countries by a Pakistani head of the state and will focus on regional and international issues such as the crises in the Middle East and the global fight against terrorism.

Musharraf will have discussions in Warsaw with Polish President Lech Kaczynski and Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and also meet business leaders and think-tanks.

In Madrid, the president is due to meet King Juan Carlos I and Spanish Prime Minister Zapatero, in addition to addressing the Spanish parliament and students of the University of Cordoba.

Musharraf will be holding talks in Sarajevo with Bosnian Presidency Chairman Nebojsa Radmanovic and Prime Minister Nikola Spiric, and will also address a joint session of the Bosnian Parliament.

Investiture ceremonies have been scheduled in these countries to honor those people who took part in relief work in the aftermath of the October 2005 earthquake in northern Pakistan that killed more than 73,000 people.

Several bilateral agreements and memoranda of understanding in the fields of culture, defense, education, economy, transportation and science and technology will also be signed during the presidential visit. The last leg of the trip will take Musharraf to Ankara where Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer will host talks between Musharraf and Karzai on April 29 and 30 to cool tensions over cross-border militancy in Afghanistan.

Islamabad and Kabul have been at loggerheads over mounting attacks on coalition forces and Afghan troops by Taleban militants operating from Pakistan’s Pashtun-inhabited tribal region by the frontier.

The sides have made blunt accusations about the other’s lack of commitment to clamping down on Taleban and Al-Qaeda elements that took refuge in the mountains after the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.