WASHINGTON, Sept 1: The US State Department on Thursday welcomed a meeting between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel but said the United States played no role in arranging the event.
“It is a good thing but totally an initiative of the government of Pakistan and represents a strategic calculation by Islamabad based on their own interests,” a State Department official told Dawn. “The US played no role in it.”
The official said the meeting was not about the Middle East peace process, “it’s about Pakistan and Israel.” Pakistan, he said, always had “a clear, principled stance on the Middle East peace process”.
He said that although the US played no role in arranging the Istanbul meeting, “we always encouraged Pakistan to engage with the Israelis in a positive way. We are hoping that Pakistan will exercise leadership in Geneva with the International Committee of the Red Cross to permit the Israeli Red Cross to become a full member of the international community.”
Describing the talks as a “getting-to-know meeting,” the official said it’s “a good political development for Pakistan in a lot of ways and the US welcomes it.”
He said President Pervez Musharraf was engaged in “a major campaign” to demonstrate Pakistan’s image “in a different light than it seems.”
The official described President Musharraf’s scheduled meeting with the American Jewish Congress in New York later this month, and another one with women groups as linked to his efforts to improve Pakistan’s image.
“The meeting with women groups will be good because of the story of the Mukhtaran Mai case,” said the official.
“The Pakistanis are exercising their diplomatic creativity on behalf of Pakistan’s interests,” he said.
UK: When approached for comments on the meeting, the British foreign and Commonwealth office spokesman described it as a “positive step,” APP adds.
ANNAN: Secretary-General Kofi Annan had noted with “great interest” the meeting, a United Nations spokesman said.
“The secretary-general is aware of the reports concerning the meeting” between the two foreign ministers, the spokesman told APP in New York.
