THE United States has revealed its ill intentions by moving Israel into the Central Command (Centcom) recently.

The founder of Pakistan, Quaid-i-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah, had declared Israel an illegitimate state. Moreover, in the context of the unspeakable oppression and brutality being continuously perpetrated by the Zionist entity against the Palestinians, Pakistan should have boycotted the 18-day International Maritime Exercise (IMX) held under the auspices of the US, in which 60 countries participated, citing the inclusion of Israel in the military drills as the reason for withdrawing.

Had Pakistan boycotted the Centcom military drills, the principled stance of Pakistan of not recognising Israel and the country’s position of leaving the US camp for good would have been candidly conveyed to the entire world.

The truth is that owing to fundamental ideological divergence, association of any sort ever between Pakistan and Israel is utterly inconceivable. This shall not change.

Raza ul Haq
Lahore

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2022