Former president General (r) Pervez Musharraf told an Israel-based newspaper in an interview on Saturday that he was in favour of Pakistan reviewing its relationship with Israel, saying it would benefit the country.
“Israel is a fait accompli and a lot of the Muslim world have understood that and I know many Muslim countries have relations with Israel, whether above board or covertly. So this is the change in reality I am talking about,” said Musharraf.
He said like Israel, Pakistan was an ideological state. “That is the foundation of our creation. We are an Islamic republic, which goes toward explaining why Pakistani Muslims are much more sensitive about Islam than most other Muslim countries. We are extremely sensitive about desecration of the Quran. So we are wholly sensitive to the Palestinian plight, and any new initiative regarding Israel has to be proposed very delicately,” said the former president, who seized power in a bloodless military coup in October 1999.
When asked about his offer to mediate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Musharraf said it was at the root many of today’s bigger problems. “Look at terrorism and extremism, 9/11, al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas – all these are products of the unsettled Palestinian dispute.
Because of the misery these Palestinians are suffering, which is seen all over the world on TV, there is a reaction,” he added.
He also said the United States’s pro-Israel policies propelled on-the-defensive Muslims into guerrilla warfare.
Musharraf favours reviewing relations with Israel
