WASHINGTON, Sept 4: Pakistan would not formally recognize Israel, but an informal arrangement could be worked out to have some sort of ties with the Jewish state, diplomatic sources told Dawn.

One of the options being debated is to authorize a Pakistani mission in one of the Arab countries neighbouring Israel to have a symbolic representational relationship with the Jewish state as well.

The Israeli mission in Turkey or another country with close friendly ties with Pakistan could be given a similar representational status, the sources said.

Another option is to establish an Israeli trade office in Pakistan and a Pakistani trade office in Israel. This is an arrangement that several Arab countries have with Israel.

If this option is adopted, Israel may then be asked to authorize the mission of a friendly state in Islamabad to house its trade office.

The third option, and the most likely to be adopted, is to implement several confidence-building measures before a formal relationship is worked out.

Under this arrangement, both official and unofficial delegations will be encouraged to regularly visit each other’s country and the two countries will also promote bilateral trade to allow their peoples to get familiar with each other.

The sources said that the third option would give Islamabad time to prepare the public opinion for a formal relationship with Israel.

Israel, however, expects Pakistan to demonstrate its ‘sincerity’ by supporting its move to join the International Committee of the Red Cross as a full member.

“The Swiss government is convening a meeting of the ICRC in December to consider Israel’s request and we would hope that Pakistan would not oppose Israel,” said Barry Jacobs, director of strategic studies at the American Jewish Committee and a retired US diplomat.

The ICRC does not recognize the Magen David Adom Society, the Israeli version of the Red Cross, because it is unwilling to adopt the Red Cross as its emblem and instead uses the Red Shield of David.

So far the Israelis have not succeeded in convincing the ICRC because of a strong opposition by the Islamic countries. They hope that with Pakistan’s support, they could defuse this opposition.

Pakistanis, however, have greater expectations. They hope that with Israel’s support, they can persuade the US to expand the Indo-US nuclear deal to include other countries as well.

Under this deal, signed on July 18, the US has agreed to provide technical support to India’s civilian nuclear reactors although New Delhi has not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The US also has promised to convince other members of the Nuclear Suppliers Group to extend similar cooperation to India.

Pakistan wants a similar arrangement but there is also a strong realization in the Pakistani camp that because of the Dr A. Q. Khan issue, Islamabad’s move will be strongly opposed in the US.

This opposition, however, can be defused with Israel’s help if Israel uses its influence in the US.

In a recent interview to Dawn, Stephen P. Cohen, a senior fellow at Washington’s Brookings Institution, indicated that both Pakistan and Israel could hope to receive US assistance for their civilian nuclear plants.

“It would be possible, both for Pakistan and Israel,” he said, but added that to receive such a favour, Pakistan would have to provide verifiable guarantee that there would be no future breach of international treaties against nuclear proliferation.