Pakistan’s president says country won’t establish ties with Israel
Denying Israeli jet landed in Islamabad last week, Arof Alvi says Muslim state supports Palestinians, raps ‘unprecedented atrocities’ against Gaza
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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistan’s President Arif Alvi said Sunday that the country will not establishing ties with Israel and that it supports the Palestinians because the Gaza Strip has also faced “unprecedented atrocities” like Kashmir.
Alvi, before departing to Ankara on a three-day visit Sunday, told reporters that speculation about the landing of an Israeli jet at an Islamabad airport was baseless. Since he assumed office last month, this is Alvi’s first foreign visit following an invitation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Israeli journalist Avi Scharf tweeted on Thursday that a private Israeli business jet had flown to Islamabad from Tel Aviv and remained in the Pakistani capital for nearly 10 hours, fueling media speculation.
Several Pakistani ministers and the Civil Aviation Authority denied the report.
Israeli ???????? bizjet flew from TLV to Islamabad, #Pakistan ????????, on the ground 10 hours, and back to TLV.
Cleared flight-plan with usual 5min groundtime trick in Amman
M-ULTI glex pic.twitter.com/haHn1NU73L— avi scharf (@avischarf) October 25, 2018
Though Pakistan has in the past indicated it would be prepared to formalize its relationship with the Jewish state once there is a peace agreement with the Palestinians, ties between the two countries are often complicated.
There have been reports of covert contacts between Israeli and Pakistani officials, including a WikiLeaks document that indicated that a high-ranking official in the Pakistani army met directly with the Israeli Mossad.
Publicly, however, the two nations have little to do with one another. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly canceled a dinner reservation in 2016 at a New York restaurant to avoid eating at the same time as Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.
The Times of Israel Community.