ISTANBUL/ISLAMABAD, 2 September 2005 — Pakistan and Israel yesterday held historic talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul. Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri said after a meeting with his Israeli counterpart, Silvan Shalom, that his country had decided to “engage with Israel” after years as one of its harshest critics over the Jewish state’s occupation of Palestinian land.
But President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said the move did not mean Pakistan recognized Israel. He reiterated Pakistan’s long-held stance that diplomatic ties could only be considered once a Palestinian state is established. The two ministers emerged upbeat from the meeting which was arranged after Turkey, which has close ties with both countries, played a mediating role to bring them together.
In a joint press conference with Shalom, Kasuri welcomed the withdrawal of Israeli troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip, which he said constituted a turning point for the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“Pakistan has therefore decided to engage with Israel,” he told reporters, but did not elaborate on what sort of an engagement his country was planning.
Shalom said the meeting heralded a new era in bilateral ties. “This is a historic meeting,” the Israeli minister said. “We see this meeting as the beginning of a new period, the beginning of open and useful mutual relations.”
Israel was hoping to establish diplomatic relations with Pakistan, Shalom told a separate news conference later in the day, but acknowledged that they were not in the making soon. “I believe positive and full diplomatic ties will be established, but this will take time,” he said.
Israel has diplomatic relations with only four Muslim countries — Turkey, Jordan, Egypt and Mauritania, Shalom said. He said Israel had “secret” contacts with all Muslim countries, but Tel Aviv hoped others would follow the lead of Pakistan and bring these contacts into the open.
“We of course want diplomatic relations (with Pakistan) at the end of the road, but it was decided that from now on the ties will be open, “ Shalom told Israel Radio. “From now on we will no longer hold secret meetings — all our parleys will be public,” he said, adding that another Israel-Pakistan parley could be expected to take place at the United Nations General Assembly session in New York in two weeks time.
The meeting between the two ministers was held at the Four Seasons Hotel, a former Ottoman prison not far from Topkapi Palace, the seat of the Ottoman Sultans for almost 400 years. Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper said Islamabad had told the Turkish government it wished to arrange the meeting in Turkey as a neutral site.
Security was extremely tight with Turkish and Israeli security officials searching bags and even disassembling photographers’ cameras. Shalom and Kasuri informally met Wednesday night at a dinner in Istanbul, Israeli officials said.
Musharraf, who has cracked down on extremism in Pakistan since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, told reporters in the southwestern Pakistani town of Quetta that the meeting was part of his government’s policy to move forward internationally.
“We cannot live in isolation,” he said. “Forward-looking countries perceive changes in advance. They formulate their policies according to the changing world scenario.” Musharraf praised Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip as a “positive step” but said the aim of yesterday’s talks was to promote the Palestinian cause.
He added that Pakistan’s move “should not be misconstrued.” “We will take the Pakistani people into confidence before taking a decision to recognize Israel,” he added.
The president also said the move had been endorsed by Arab leaders.
The meeting comes two weeks before Musharraf is due to make a rare address to the American Jewish Congress in New York. He is to speak about his campaign for moderation in the Muslim world.
Islamic parties in Pakistan called on the people to observe a black day today.
The deputy leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, Ghafoor Ahmed, said: “It is an irony that up until now Israel has not even recognized Pakistan. When India invaded Pakistan in the 1960s, Israel stood with India and declared war against Pakistan saying that it will become an ally of India and do whatever it can to attack and destroy Pakistan. Israel has no affection for Pakistan. More than 85 percent of Pakistanis are against even thinking of having a relationship with Israel.
“But Pakistanis cannot do anything. We can only protest and hold demonstrations against Gen. Musharraf who is not even elected properly as president. He does whatever the United States tells him to do. We cannot fight the army. Even in the local bodies elections, there was widespread rigging but we could not do anything. The army and the Rangers took everything in their hands.”
Sarfaraz Ahmed, spokesman for Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal — a coalition of Islamic parties — said: “We have declared Friday a Black Day. We condemn Islamabad’s first high-level diplomatic contact with Israel and we will launch nationwide protests.”
Huma Malik, deputy director of Islam Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, called the Istanbul meeting “a great step, considering the fact that Israel just relinquished the Gaza Strip.”
“This is very brave of Musharraf, but I wouldn’t read too much into it. We need to see how it goes and what comes of it and then see if it leads to something and really is an initiative,” she added.
Marvin Weinbaum, a research scholar at the Middle East Institute, sees three motives behind Pakistan’s move. “First, Pakistan knows that this is something that is welcome in the United States, and Pakistan is always looking to cement its partnership with the US, with deliverables it can offer at not too high a price.
“Secondly, I would see this in regional terms, in the South Asian context, and that is that Pakistan has been standing by while India has been the recipient of benefits from their relationship with Israel. Pakistan is taking a pragmatic view of using its leverage to keep India’s relationship from growing with Israel.”
Thirdly, he is playing the Islamic leader, “someone who is going to take the lead in showing where a moderate, enlightened Islam can go. This is a small part of a larger project which plays to the international audience, the US and also to his own people. He sees himself as a bridge between the West and a more enlightened Islam.”
In Britain, Muslim organizations were still digesting the news of the meeting. The move has taken them by surprise given that Pakistan has always staunchly refused any contacts with the Jewish state.
Neither the Muslim Council of Britain, the Islamic Human Rights Commission, nor the British Muslim Forum could comment on the developments saying that they are still awaiting the full statement of the meeting.
However, all of them staunchly support the right of the Palestinian people for self-determination and statehood and attack Israel’s illegal occupation of occupied Palestinian lands.
(Huma Aamir Malik from Islamabad, Barbara Ferguson from Washington and Mushtak Parker from London contributed to this report)
