Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani has said that Pakistani officials have not met Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen in recent times. Pakistan will decide on establishing relations with Israel keeping in mind its national interests and those of the Palestinian people.
His response came a day after the Israeli minister claimed to have met several officials from Muslim nations with which Israel does not share formal ties. Cohen had said that he expected six or seven Islamic nations to sign a normalisation agreement with Israel once Saudi Arabia joins the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan in the Abraham Accords.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on September 22 told the United Nations that Israel is on the “cusp” of normalising relations with Saudi Arabia and that Palestinians should not get to “veto” the move.
Addressing the General Assembly in New York, Netanyahu said agreements in 2020 to establish formal ties with three other Arab states had already “heralded the dawn of a new age of peace.”
