The Israeli minister says more countries are lined up to normalize their relationship with Israel but considers Pakistan to be one of them.
Pakistan is not among the Muslim countries that Israel aims to normalize relations with, the Israeli cabinet minister said.
In the past few months, the Trump administration has cracked down on rapprochements between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco.
Israel’s regional cooperation minister Ofir Akunis told Ynet TV on Wednesday that two more countries were linked to normalize with Israel before US President Donald Trump leaves the White House next month.
He did not name either but said there was a man in the Gulf but not Saudi Arabia.
The other, further east, is a “not insignificant Muslim country” but not in Pakistan, Akunis said.
Earlier this week, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said Islamabad cannot recognize Israel until the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is resolved.
“I took Pakistan’s position on Israel to the UAE foreign minister [during a visit to the UAE] that we cannot and will not establish a relationship with Israel until a hard and lasting solution is found to the Palestinian issue, ”Qureshi said.
Qureshi’s statement came days after his visit to the UAE, which many saw as important amid rumors that Islamabad had sent a messenger to Israel in secret.
Islamabad denied the reports, which appeared mainly in the Israeli media.
Responding to questions about reports of alleged pressure from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Gulf states to recognize Israel, Qureshi said he explained to his UAE alliance “the depth of feelings and Pakistan ‘s feelings about Palestine and Kashmir ”.
Meanwhile, Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country, said last week that it would not recognize Israel as long as Palestinian state demands remain unfulfilled. Malaysia has signed a similar policy.
In Dhaka, a foreign ministry official said that Bangladesh was not interested in having diplomatic ties with Israel.
“Our situation is as it is,” he told Reuters news agency.
Oman has praised a broken diplomatic campaign by the U.S. but did not comment on what it intends to do to forge Israeli ties.
The Palestinians, who stopped their talks with Israel in 2014, fear the fear of the normalization process.