Pakistan on Thursday reiterated that there could be no recognition of Israel until a just settlement of Palestine dispute, rubbishing the speculations on the issue.
“Let me reiterate that there is no change in Pakistan’s principled position on the issue. The recognition of Israel is not under consideration,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in the weekly press briefing.
He said Prime Minister Imran Khan had already made it clear that unless a just settlement of the Palestine issue, satisfactory to the Palestinian people, was found, Pakistan could not recognize Israel.
He said for just and lasting peace, it was imperative to have a two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) resolutions, with the pre-1967 borders, and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian state.
As regards the prime minister’s maiden visit to Afghanistan, the FO spokesperson said it focused on further deepening the fraternal ties between Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Afghan peace process, regional economic development and connectivity.
Besides holding wide-ranging talks with President Ashraf Ghani, the prime minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s support to a peaceful, stable, united, democratic, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan and called on all sides for taking necessary measures for reduction in violence.
At a virtually held 2020 Afghanistan Conference, co-hosted by Finland, Afghanistan and the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA), the spokesperson said Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi highlighted Pakistan’s contribution to help Afghanistan attain self-reliance.
About the Country Strategy Dialogue (CSD) held by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday inaugurated and participated by the prime minister with the WEF president, and the chairpersons and chief executive officers of leading global corporations, he said the second Dialogue within a year was recognition of Pakistan’s positive economic trajectory.
