Iraq, Israel and Pakistan's interests

[QuietStorm]

Despite repeated clarifications from the Foreign Office, there was growing concern in some quarters, over the issue of Pakistani troops going to Iraq under US command and Pakistan suddenly recognising Israel. While a healthy debate ensued in the media, Pakistan's official position was not as ambiguous as some made it out to be. After all, President Musharraf himself had stated the position very clearly in his interview with a UAE daily which was reported in The News (16 July, 2003). Now the President has once again reiterated, in Lahore, on August 4, 2003, that while Pakistan, in principle, is agreeable to sending troops to Iraq, these troops cannot be sent "for extension of Iraq's occupation". Therefore, as the president put it, "we will send our troops to Iraq either under the umbrella of the United Nations, OIC or any other world mechanism and not otherwise."

snip

As for the issue of the recognition of Israel, one positive development has been that a taboo subject has been debated - and is being debated -- with great vigour in the media. On this issue also, the official Pakistani position has made it clear that while we should take cognisance of ground realities, we are in no hurry and will link our recognition with progress on the Middle East Roadmap and in consultation with our Muslim allies. Here again there is a strong lobby that wants Pakistan to repudiate its principled position on Palestinian self-determination and recognise Israel immediately. The Israelis are cleverly playing on this, as shown in their latest pronouncement that they will allow Pakistani pilgrims into Muslim holy sites under their occupation even if our passports have no validity for Israel! What a devious way of legitimising Israeli occupation!

snip

India is already in line to receive the Phalcon early warning system and the Elta Green Pine radar system; and the Indo-Israeli lobbies are working jointly to pressure the US into transferring the Arrow system to India also -again via Israel. Also, amongst the areas of defence cooperation there is the $30 million deal for 3,400 Tavor assault rifles, 200 Galil sniper rifles, night vision and laser range finding and targeting equipment. Israel will also upgrade the Indian MiG 21s and supply avionics for the MiG 27s, UAVs, laser guided bombs and thermal imagers. Of course, Israel is also training up to 3000 Indian soldiers in anti-insurgency operations, given the Indians dismal performance over the years in Occupied Kashmir. And there is a joint Indo-Israeli agreement to market the advanced light helicopter. In addition to these defence deals, Indian telecom companies signed 22 deals with top Israeli companies in telecom, Internet and mobile sectors, while Israeli venture capitalists have struck deals worth $ 7 billion in India.

http://www.hipakistan.com/en/detail.php?newsId=en34923&F_catID=&f_type=source

[premjan]

1. high time

some islamic folks had the sense to call a spade a spade. Pakistan has always been a Mughal remnant Islamic wannabe rather than one of the Arabic tribe so their enmity to Israel is second-hand at best. The cohesion of the tribe of Judea should be stronger than that of the nation of Islam.