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Engaging Israel: The Significance of the Istanbul Meeting between Israel and Pakistan

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Simon Henderson and Soner Cagaptay - The Sept. 1 meeting in Istanbul between Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom and his Pakistani counterpart, Khurshid Kasuri, represents a major breakthrough in Jerusalem's efforts to overcome diplomatic isolation. For Islamabad, the public contact carries high risks. Several Pakistani political leaders from the Islamist opposition have condemned the meeting. While Pakistan's declared new policy towards Israel has yet to develop, its immediate effect may well be to dent Palestinian diplomatic efforts at the UN to claim that Israel still occupies Gaza even though the settlers have left and the Israeli army is soon to depart. Egypt, Jordan, and Mauritania are the only Arab countries with formal diplomatic relations, while Morocco, Tunisia, Qatar, and Oman maintain less formal links. Israel's ties with non-Arab Muslim countries have grown immensely since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the independence of the Turkic Muslim countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia.
2005-09-05 00:00:00
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