Islamabad: Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar on Friday tried to evade responsibility for the Gaza peace plan, saying the draft released by President Donald Trump was different from the one proposed by the Muslim countries, including Pakistan.
Addressing the parliament, Dar talked at length to clarify the misgivings regarding Trump’s peace deal, including whether Pakistan was ready to recognise Israel.
“The Gaza peace plan made public by President Trump is truly not ours and changes have been made to our draft,” he asserted, amid criticism by religious groups like Jamat-I-Islami, which have warned of protests if Pakistan recognises Israel.
Dar clarified that Pakistan, along with seven other countries, had received the 20-point agenda from the US when they met Trump in New York last month.
Leaders of eight Muslim and Arab countries – Jordan, the UAE, Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Egypt – jointly met Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session last month, where the US president discussed his plan for ending the Israeli onslaught in Gaza.
“Using the given framework, we made our own amendments based on our wish-list and submitted the changes to the US,” Dar said.
Dar said that there was no other item on the agenda during the meeting with Trump, where it was agreed to keep the discussions confidential.
He, however, told the parliament that the peace plan was the only solution to end the bloodshed in Gaza, which was crucial at this point.
The plan, unveiled after talks between Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, proposes an immediate end to the war in Gaza and the release of all the hostages held by Hamas within 72 hours.
Hamas has not yet accepted the peace plan.
President Trump on Friday said Hamas must agree to the proposed peace deal for Gaza by Sunday and threatened that the group will suffer more attacks if it doesn’t.
Dar insisted that Pakistan will never recognise Israel and that it remains committed to the two-state solution with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al Sharif (Jerusalem) as the capital of a future Palestinian state. He insisted that there was no change in Pakistan’s principled stance.
He also confirmed that under the proposed agreement, an international peacekeeping contingent would be deployed to Palestine. He said Pakistan’s leadership would soon decide whether to contribute troops.
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