Daily Times

The Foreign Office on Tuesday termed as ‘fabricated’ the media reports claiming that Prime Minister Imran Khan in an interview had mentioned the pressure of United States on Pakistan to recognize Israel.

FO Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said the Prime Minister had clearly articulated Pakistan’s position that unless a just settlement of the Palestine issue which was satisfactory to the Palestinian people, Pakistan could not recognize Israel. He said the prime minister had stressed that Pakistan’s policy in this regard was rooted in Quaid-e-Azam’s vision. “The prime minister’s remarks are an unequivocal reaffirmation of Pakistan’s position on the subject, leaving no room for baseless speculation,” he said.

The FO spokesperson said Pakistan will continue to support a two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions as well as international law, with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of Palestine.

Earlier this year, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan normalised relations with Israel, while reports in the media stated that the Trump administration was goading Saudi Arabia to do the same. Riyadh has so far not followed in the footsteps of its Gulf and Arab allies.

A day earlier, a report published by the Middle East Eye had quoted Prime Minister Imran Khan as saying that pressure to recognise Israel was ‘extraordinary during the Trump stint’. In a television interview in August, the prime minister had categorically said that Pakistan could not recognise Israel as a state unless it gave freedom to Palestine. “Quaid-i-Azam had said in 1948 that Pakistan could not recognise Israel unless it gave freedom to Palestinians. If we recognise Israel and ignore tyranny faced by the Palestinians, we will have to give up (the cause of) Kashmir as well, and this we cannot do,” he had said.