Pakistan could face an unusual domestic fallout if it chooses to back US President Donald Trump’s push toexpand the Abraham Accords- its passports. The issue stems from Pakistan’s long-standing policy of not recognising Israel - a stance explicitly reflected in the passports, which bar travel to the country. It was also mentioned by Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif recently.
Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has said that he was not in favour of Islamabad joining the Abraham Accords. He also mentioned that Pakistan's passport says it is not valid for travel to Israel. "This passport is valid for all countries of the world except Israel," every Pakistani passport has this one line printed on it.
"Personally, I don’t think we should join any such accord which clashes with our fundamental ideologies," Asif said during an interview on a talk show with Samaa TV on Monday night, as reported by news agency PTI.
Pakistan's defence minister also talked about his country's long-standing position to not accept Israel until the Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital is established. "We have a very clear stance that it is not acceptable to us," he said.
"How will you sit with those people whose word cannot be trusted for even a single day?" he asked.
The Abraham Accords are US-brokered agreements from Donald Trump's first term aimed at normalising relations with Israel. They were framed as an effort to promote cooperation among countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and the administration saw them as partly paving a path toward full ties with Israel.
Now, Trump has linked the Abraham Accords to Iran war. In a lengthy statement posted on Truth Social, Trump said that any agreement to end the Iran war should include a requirement for several additional countries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords.
Apoorva Shukla is a journalist at Times Now, where she thrives on dissecting political developments both at home and abroad. A graduate of Delhi Univ...View More
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