MULTAN: Pakistan will not recognize Israel until a peaceful solution to the Palestine issue, says Foreign Minister (FM) Shah Mehmood Qureshi at a media briefing in Multan on Monday.
During the media briefing, the foreign minister said that he has appraised the Emirati leadership of Pakistan’s position and stressed that Islamabad will not recognize Tel Aviv until a lasting solution for the Palestine conflict is agreed on.
According to FM Qureshi, there is no pressure on Pakistan to recognize Israel and the country will make decisions in its own interests.
Talking about the temporary UAE visa ban for Pakistan, the foreign minister clarified that it is a temporary issue which will be resolved soon. According to the UAE foreign minister, the ban was placed to the pandemic.
Read more: UAE visa restrictions for Pakistan temporary: FM Sheikh Abdullah.
Furthermore, Shah Mehmood Qureshi stated that the Emirati leadership does not believe there can be a substitute for Pakistan. “Neither does the UAE nor the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia perceive New Delhi as a replacement for Islamabad,” he said.
Moreover, the foreign minister said that he also discussed the Kashmir issue at length with the Emirati leadership during this two-day visit to the UAE and pointed out similarities with the Palestine issue.
FM Qureshi also condemned the India for trying to malign Pakistan’s reputation and cited the EU DisinfoLab’s latest reports exposing New Delhi of running fake NGOs and news websites around the world to discredit Islamabad.
UAE visa restrictions apply to Muslim countries
Although the UAE government said that the visa restrictions were placed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is pertinent to mention applied only to Muslim countries, including Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and more.
Even though countries like the United States and India had way more cases and a higher infection rate, the Emirati government did not impose the same visa ban on these countries. What’s surprising about the decision is that it came shortly after UAE’s friendship with the Jewish state of Israel.
However, the UAE has since yesterday banned all incoming commercial flights rendering the current visa issue pointless since no outsider can enter the country until further notice.
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