ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not establish relations with Israel "at any cost," the head of the Pakistan Ulema Council (PUC) said on Wednesday.
The statement comes in the wake of media reports that the South Asian Muslim-majority nation has been under United States pressure to reconsider its rejection of recognizing the Jewish state.
"Pakistan will not recognize Israel at any cost," PUC president Tahir Ashrafi told reporters in Islamabad.
Pakistan will not accept any solution for Palestine "if it will not be endorsed by Palestinians," the PUC head, who is also the Pakistani prime minister's special assistant on religious harmony and the Middle East, said in a statement by the council after the press conference.
The country's foreign office on Tuesday also "categorically rejected" speculation regarding any possibility of recognizing Israel by Pakistan
Referring to Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent statement on the subject, the foreign office said Pakistan "steadfastly supports the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination" and Islamabad was not willing to recognize Tel Aviv until a just settlement of the Palestine issue — one that would satisfy the Palestinian people — was found.
"For just and lasting peace, it is imperative to have a two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions, with the pre-1967 borders, and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State," a statement by the foreign office read.
Pakistan does not currently recognize Israel and has repeatedly supported United Nations resolutions regarding Palestine.
