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| September 24, 2005 | Saturday | Sha'aban 19, 1426 |
First contact with Israel made in ’84, says Naik
ISLAMABAD, Sept 23: Former foreign secretary Niaz A.Naik has disclosed that the first contact between Pakistan and Israel was established way back in 1984 when the then vice chief of general staff, K.M. Arif, met his counterpart in Geneva.
General security and other related issues between the two countries came under discussion during the meeting, Mr Naik said at a seminar on “engaging Israel for Peace”, arranged by the South Asian Free Media Association here on Friday.
He said he himself met the Israeli consul general when he was Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations. He said the wife of the Israeli consul general was born in Karachi. He said he also met Israeli military personnel when he went to South Africa as Commonwealth observer to monitor historic elections in the country.
Mr Naik said Israel kept on supporting Pakistan time to time, and pointed out that it supported Pakistan on the forum of United Nations on a resolution against the then Soviet Union’s aggression against Afghanistan.
He said Israel was keen to establish relations with Pakistan and messages were sent to Islamabad by Tel Aviv, pointing out that there was no bilateral dispute between the two countries and that they did not pose a security threat to each other. He said it was also mentioned in the messages that these two were the only countries created on the basis of division; both were surrounded by hostile neighbours and were nuclear weapon states.
Mr Naik said there were other ways of establishing contact with Israel, short of according a formal diplomatic recognition to the country.
“If we were to cooperate 10 years ago, things would have been different,” he observed. He said Pakistan could have had sophisticated weapons from Israel in such a case, but lamented that the opportunity was missed.
He said Pakistan was no longer a failed state and was seen as an important country now. He was of the view that improvement in relations with Israel could help expedite the Middle East peace process and Al-Quds could become permanent headquarter of the OIC.
The former foreign secretary said a group of eminent persons should be formed to discuss in detail the basic foreign policy issues confronting Pakistan.
Another former foreign secretary, Riaz Khokar, said there was enormous international interest in the first ever open contact between Pakistan and Israel. He said there had been a history of contacts spread over a decade.
He revealed that as ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, he met the Israeli ambassador in Washington when there were rumours of a pre-emptive Israeli strike against Pakistan’s nuclear installations. He said senior US officials were also involved, adding that Israel made it clear that it had no such plan. He said the then Israeli foreign minister was in China where a similar assurance was held out by him.
Mr Khokar said as a foreign secretary, he remained in contact with Israel, and substantive discussions on various issues took place. He, however, said his contact was very discreet. He said President Gen Pervez Musharraf had assumed great international stature and was now a major figure on the international scene.
He said he was all for contacts with Israel, but stressed that all major foreign policy issues must have broad-based consensus. He said the decision of open contact between Pakistan and Israel had been warmly welcomed in the West and the United States. He said though Pakistan had welcomed the pull-out of Israeli troops from Gaza, the move was tactical in nature. “The withdrawal of Israeli troops from West Bank will tell where peace process will go,” he said.
Former foreign secretary Dr Tanvir Ahmad Khan, while expressing his views about the contact between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Israel, said such a bold policy initiative needed a careful packaging.
He said foreign policy was not a static affair but a dynamic one. He rejected the notion that improvement in relations with Israel would enable Pakistan to facilitate peace between Israel and Palestine. He said even former US president Bill Clinton made an attempt for peace between Israel and Palestine, but his efforts ended in fiasco. “Nothing in the last 50 years entitles us to claim such kind of leverage in the Middle East,” he said.
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