ISLAMABAD, Aug 29: The government is planning to send a high-level delegation to Gaza and Al Quds but there is no move to recognize Israel, which is the occupying power there, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Monday.

Spokesman Mohammad Naeem Khan told a news briefing that the visit, requested by Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during his visit to Pakistan in May, was being worked out in consultation with the Palestinian authorities.

He would not say who would issue visas to the members of the delegation because Israel was still the occupying power there.

He told a questioner that President Pervez Musharraf’s planned address to an inter-faith gathering in New York next month at the invitation of a Jewish group did not mean that Pakistan was moving towards recognizing Israel.

Mr Khan said he understood that the delegation would include eminent personalities of the country, including politicians, and matters about visas for them were “questions of details,” that were being worked out. Pakistanis are banned from travelling to Israel, which Islamabad does not recognise.

The spokesman confirmed that the president had accepted the American Jewish Congress’ invitation to address the inter-faith meeting when he would be in New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in mid-September. He said the gathering would include Muslims, Christians and followers of other faiths as one of several initiatives being planned on the margins of the UNGA to promote “inter-faith harmony and inter-civilization understanding”.

“I don’t think that would mean that Pakistan is stepping in the direction of recognizing Israel,” he said.

He said Pakistan’s position was “very clear” that it would not recognize Israel until the Jewish state vacated all Palestinian territories it occupied in 1967, allowed an independent Palestinian state and implemented UN Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 and a peace roadmap given by the ‘quartet’ comprising the UN, the US, the European Union and Russia.

Mr Khan referred to “important developments” after Mr Abbas’ visit here like the Israeli pullout from Gaza this month, and said: “We have welcomed it as a positive step and have expressed the hope that the process will continue in the West Bank and legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people for establishment of an independent Palestinian state will be realised.”

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