Pakistan staunchly rejected the possibility of becoming a signatory to the Abraham Accords on Monday after US President Donald Trump urged several Muslim-majority countries, including Pakistan, to normalise relations with Israel as part of the country’s wider regional arrangement linked to its ongoing negotiations with Iran.
Refuting any such possibility, the country’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that Islamabad would not support any agreement that brings it into conflict with its country’s long-held principles on Palestine and Israel.
“Personally, I don’t think we should join any such accord that clashes with our fundamental ideologies,” Asif said in an interview with Samaa TV.
Questioning the reliability of engagement with Israel, he asked “How will you sit down with those people whose word cannot be trusted even for a single day.”
Reaffirming Pakistan’s official position, the minister said there had been no change in Islamabad’s policy.
“We have a very clear stance that this is not acceptable to us,” he said.
Asif also pointed to Pakistan’s passport policy as a symbol of that position, saying Pakistan remained among the few countries whose passports do not recognise Israel.
“On our passports, we are the only country whose passports don’t even include Israel’s name,” he said.
Pakistan has never formally recognised Israel since its creation in 1947 and to date has consistently maintained that any diplomatic relations with Jerusalem were only possibly after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
Trump had earlier this week called for Gulf states including Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, along with other regional countries to join the accords alongside any future understanding with Iran.
The accords, which were launched by Trump during his first term in 2020, saw Israel normalising its ties with several Arab states including the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, expanding its ties with the Arab world considerably which prior to the treaty only included Egypt, and Jordan.
Pakistan’s foreign office has previously denied suggestions that its involvement in broader regional initiatives signalled any shift in policy towards Israel.
Earlier this year, officials insisted that participation in the Gaza Board of Peace was “not in any way connected” to the Abraham Accords and said Pakistan would not become part of them.
