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A History of Pakistan-Israel Relations
(Al Arabiya) Kaswar Klasra - Pakistan should consider establishing ties with Israel, former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said last month. Musharraf said he had initiated contact with Israel in 2004, and the foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan held their first meeting in Turkey in 2005. General Zia-ul-Haq, who served as President and Army Chief of Staff, reportedly allowed Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) to establish links with Israel's Mossad in the early 1980s. Intelligence offices were set up in embassies of both countries in Washington, D.C., where the Mossad and ISI, with help from the CIA, ran a decade-long anti-Soviet operation, codenamed Operation Cyclone. Under this operation, Israel delivered Soviet-made weapons to Afghan rebels fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, and also supplied weapons to the Pakistan Army. According to WikiLeaks, ISI secretly passed on intelligence to the Mossad that Israeli civilians might be targeted in a terrorist attack in India in 2008. It was also reported that then-ISI chief Lt.-Gen. Ahmad Shuja Pasha established direct contact with Israel's Mossad to pass on this information. Islamabad-based analyst Mustansar Abbas of Quaid-e-Azam University said: "Take the example of Oman, which made it loud and clear that it is time to recognize Israel. Many Muslim countries, which in the past took a strong and principled stand against Israel, are now increasingly warming up to the Jewish state. So, Pakistan should consider building relations with Israel."