NEW YORK, Sept 20: Pakistan’s decision to engage Israel in a dialogue will also help the Kashmir cause rather than hurting it, APHC Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq told a news conference here on Tuesday after a meeting with OIC foreign ministers.

“I believe contact with Israel will soften up some of those nations who do not support the Kashmir cause,” he said, adding that Pakistan had to think of its national interests first while making such decisions.

Mr Farooq leads his own faction of the All Party Hurriyat Conference which has opened dialogue with India.

“Besides being a party to the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan also is an independent Muslim state that has a role in the Islamic world,” said the APHC leader. “It is an important Muslim country, the only one with a nuclear programme, and it has to protect its interests.”

His comments reflect concerns expressed by other Muslim leaders as well, some of whom claim that in the early 1990s Israel even considered taking out Pakistani nuclear installations. But Israel’s Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Dawn that his country never participated in any plan to attack Pakistan’s nuclear assets because it did not see Pakistan as a threat.

Mr Farooq said that Pakistan’s contacts with Israel would not only help improve Islamabad’s image, which had suffered since the Sept 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the US, it would also allow it to play a role in seeking a solution to the Palestinian dispute.