Pakistani foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has affirmed that his country’s position on the Palestinian cause has always been clear and never changed refuting media claims that Islamabad intends to normalize its relations with Israel.
This came in press remarks made on Friday by the Pakistani minister on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meetings that kicked off recently in New York.
Several news reports claimed that a Pakistani delegation including a former minister had visited Occupied Jerusalem and met with Israeli officials as prelude to normalizing relations between the two sides.
Zardari said that the Pakistani government had nothing to do with that visit pointing out that such confusion happens every time some civil society groups organize such visits.
Last Thursday Pakistan’s foreign ministry dismissed media reports claiming that a delegation of the country was visiting Israel and pointed out that the tour was arranged by an international organization which was not based in Pakistan.
“The reported visit in question was organized by a foreign NGO which is not based in Pakistan” foreign ministry spokesperson Asim Ahmed said in a statement issued in response to media queries.
“Pakistan’s position on the Palestinian issue is clear and unambiguous. There is no change whatsoever in our policy on which there is complete national consensus” Ahmed added.
He underlined that Pakistan had always “supported the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination.”
“The establishment of an independent viable and contiguous Palestinian State with pre-1967 borders and al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital in accordance with the relevant UN and OIC resolutions is imperative for just and lasting peace in the region” he added.
