Pakistan and Israel deal Iran a
blow By Safa Haeri
PARIS - The meeting on Thursday between
the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan in
Istanbul is a huge success for Israel's diplomacy
and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, and, in the short
term, a setback for Iran.
The meeting
between Silvan Shalom of Israel and Khurseed
Mahmoud Kasuri of Pakistan, described by many
observers as historic, was the fruit of secret
efforts by the pro-Islamic Turkish Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan to help diffuse Middle East
tensions.
The three countries involved in
the meeting are Washington's close strategic
allies, while Turkey has deep military and
security cooperation with Israel.
"It is
no coincidence that this meeting took place here
in Turkey, this great Muslim democracy, and
Israel's long-standing friend," Shalom observed,
adding, "Israel's relations with Turkey are proof
that
Israel can enjoy good and mutually beneficial
relations with our Muslim neighbors."
"The
meeting between Pakistan and Israel is a great
blow to the policies of the Islamic republic based
on an unabated antagonism with Israel and the
'Palestiniation' of its diplomacy which, in the
past two decades, were the cause of many crises in
Iran's foreign relations and increases in tensions
with the United States, resulting in huge damage
to our national interests," commented Iran Emrooz,
a Persian-language Internet news website based in
Germany.
So far, there has been no comment
from Tehran, but a source close to the new
government of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said,
"They are shocked to the point of being choked
off," referring to the Iranian leaders.
"As usual, when Iranian officials are
jolted and horrified to the point of being
astounded at some news they are not ready for,
they keep silent until the oracle comes from the
leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei," the source added,
speaking on condition of not being named.
The sole Muslim regime to have openly made
the destruction of the Jewish state a pillar
principle of its foreign policy, Iran is now more
isolated than ever before in the region, in the
Muslim community and in the world, as Israel has
diplomatic relations with most Muslim nations in
Central Asia. It is also recognized at different
levels by most of the Persian Gulf sheikdoms and
has a presence in Afghanistan and also in Iraq,
thanks to the traditional ties it enjoys with the
Kurds.
"As a result of a foolish diplomacy
based on the destruction of Israel, Iran has
suffered enormous diplomatic humiliations and
economic losses," said Dr Shahin Fatemi, a
professor of Economy at the American University of
Paris.
"The biggest danger for the Islamic
republic is that the Pakistanis, under growing
pressures from Washington, might inform Israel on
the extent of cooperation offered by Abdul Qadeer
Khan, the so-called father of Pakistan's atomic
bomb and the materials he sold to Tehran
secretly," said Hasan Shari'atmadari, a member of
the Iranian Republican Movement based in Hamburg,
Germany.
According to Western intelligence
agencies, Khan sold Iran hundreds of aging
centrifuges that helped Iranian technicians build
a more advanced type, known as P-2, an important
step for enriching uranium and ultimately making
nuclear weapons.
"For the time being,
Tehran will keep quiet, swallow the blow, giving
itself time to recover, but there is no doubt that
the regime will feel badly isolated in being the
mother of all nations dedicated to the
annihilation of Israel," Shari'atmadari told Asia
Times Online in a telephone interview.
Shari'atmadari is the son of the late
Grand Ayatollah Kazem Shari'atmadari, who was
"defrocked" by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
the leader of the Islamic revolution of 1979, on
suspicion of encouraging a counter-revolutionary
coup.
However, Shari'atmadari said that
the rapprochement between Israel and Pakistan, a
close friend of the Islamic republic, could "also
pave the way for normalization of relations
between Tehran and Washington, ties that were cut
off after Iranian revolutionary students stormed
the American Embassy in Tehran in November 1979,
taking 55 American diplomats and staff as hostages
for 444 days.
Mas'oud Behnoud, a veteran
Iranian journalist and political commentator based
in London, shares this view. "This has an historic
dimension that could eventually help pave the way
to direct negotiations between Iran and the United
States," he told Asia Times Online. "In the longer
term, it will give Iran the opportunity to come to
a kind of rapprochement with
Washington."
In Behnoud's opinion, Ali
Larijani, the new top Iranian nuclear negotiator,
has his own plans on that point, based on "a give
and take involving the security of both Iran and
Israel".
Fatemi said the meeting at the
Dort Mowsem (Four Seasons in Turkish) Hotel of
Istanbul was "the beginning of a political current
in the region that will take all other Arab and
Muslim nations to recognize the Jewish state".
Describing as "very courageous" the
decision of President General Pervez Musharraf to
give the green light to the meeting, Fatemi also
said that as a result (of Israeli-Pakistani
rapprochement), the Islamic republic, now under a
fundamentalist president, would face "major,
unseen difficulties".
Although Shalom
expressed hope after meeting with his Pakistani
counterpart that Tel Aviv and Islamabad would
announce the establishment of diplomatic ties
during the next meeting of the United Nations
General Assembly in New York on September 14,
Musharraf ruled out such an event in the near
future.
Musharraf, commenting on the
decision to engage Israel, as well as meet leaders
of the Jewish community when he visits New York
later this month, said: "No one should be annoyed
by it. My aim is to strengthen the cause of
Palestine."
Threatened by protests from
Pakistan's powerful fundamentalist parties and
organizations opposed to Israel, Musharraf said:
"We will not talk about recognition of Israel
until a Palestinian state is established and then
we will think about it. We will take people along.
This is indirect contact."
Defending the
meeting, he said it was backed by Saudi Arabia's
King Abdullah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas. "We consulted his highness Saudi King
Abdullah and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and
both appreciated our move and gave us the go-ahead
signal," Musharraf told reporters in the
southwestern city of Quetta.
The meeting
was part of his government's policy to move
forward internationally. "We cannot live in
isolation. Forward-looking countries perceive
changes in advance. They formulate their policies
according to the changing world scenario," he
added, praising Israel's pullout from Gaza as a
"positive step".
Pakistan, the first
Muslim nation to build a nuclear weapon, has been
a staunch supporter of demands for a Palestinian
state and an end to Israel's occupation of the
West Bank and Gaza, home to 3.8 million
Palestinians.
Explaining the event,
Pakistan's Dawn newspaper said the decisive factor
in Pakistan's decision to engage was the Jewish
state's pullout last month from the Gaza Strip
after 38 years of occupation. Israel completed
evacuating 9,000 settlers from Gaza and the
northern West Bank on August 23 under Sharon's
plan for "disengagement" from conflict with the
Palestinians.
The Istanbul meeting comes
just two weeks before Musharraf is due to make a
rare address to the American Jewish Congress in
New York, to speak about his campaign for
moderation in the Muslim world.
The
Pakistani strongman has also accepted an
invitation to address an interfaith conference
this month organized by the Council for World
Jewry while he is in New York to attend the UN
General Assembly.
"It is learnt that
covert contacts between representatives of the
Jewish state and Pakistan had been going on for
several months through diplomatic and informal
channels. However, the decisive factor for the
first open political contact between the two
countries was the Israeli pullout from Gaza last
month, which in Pakistan is viewed as a positive
move and has been welcomed by the government,"
Dawn added.
Relations with Pakistan are
important for Israel. Pakistan is one of the most
populous Muslim countries, and establishing ties
could soften enmity towards the Jewish state in
other Muslim countries. Israeli officials also
believe that relations with Pakistan could set off
a chain reaction in the region, with countries
like Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh following
suit.
Musharraf, a key US ally in the
Indian sub-continent, has been gradually moving
toward conciliation with Israel, despite the
influence of a powerful Islamic radical party in
Pakistan.
Israeli diplomats hope that
"such contacts also help strengthen the moderates
on the Palestinian side - those who recognize that
dialogue and acceptance must always be preferred
to hatred, terror and extremism".
But the
Palestinian authority said it was "worried" about
Pakistan's diplomatic contact with Israel as the
Jewish state continues to occupy east Jerusalem
and the West Bank.
"It is not good to give
Israel gifts before it really implements the peace
process, not only in Gaza, but in Gaza, the West
Bank and Jerusalem," Deputy Prime Minister Nabil
Shaath told reporters.
In the absence of
immediate reaction from main Arab and Muslim
capitals, due primarily to the fact that public
administrations are closed on Friday in most
Muslim nations, the Cairo-based Arab League said
that Israel had made "no major concessions to
merit such a decision", referring to the
Shalom-Kasuri meeting.
A spokesman for the
al-Jamaia-Islamiya Muslim organization in
Islamabad told al-Jazeera TV that this was a
"black day for the Pakistani people" and that they
would not support Musharraf in his move to
establish diplomatic ties with Israel.
Pakistani's main Islamic opposition party
also denounced the country's decision and said it
would hang out black flags in a day of protest.
Qazi Hussain Ahmed, leader of the powerful
alliance of six Islamic parties that leads the
opposition Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, said, "This is
a move which is against the interest of Islamic
ummah [Muslim community] and reflects the
pro-US policies of the present government. It goes
against a policy that Pakistan has been pursuing
from the very beginning."
But the head of
the governing Pakistan Muslim League recently said
the Arab world would benefit from Pakistan and
Israel establishing relations.
Safa
Haeri is a Paris-based Iranian journalist
covering the Middle East and Central Asia.
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