Venomous Posting Raises Doubt About Pakistan’s Status as an Honest Broker in Iran Peace Talks

Pakistan claims that it is best positioned to host talks about ending the Iran war because it has ties to all countries involved. Yet a venomous posting by a top Islamabad official, describing one combatant in the war, Israel, as a “cancerous state,” raises doubts about the Islamic state’s status as an honest broker. “Israel is evil and a curse for humanity,” the Pakistani defense minister, Khawaja M. Asif, wrote on X Thursday in a now-deleted posting. “While peace talks are underway in Islamabad, genocide is being committed in Lebanon. Innocent citizens are being killed by Israel, first Gaza, then Iran and now Lebanon, bloodletting continues unabated. I hope and pray people who created this cancerous state on Palestinian land to get rid of European jews burn in hell.”The Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, tells The New York Sun that his country is seeking to make peace and is uniquely positioned to mediate a truce because it has good relations with America, the Islamic Republic, the Gulf Cooperation Council, and others. He pointedly omitted Israel from the list. On Friday Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif reportedly ordered his defense minister to delete the posting. Officials at Jerusalem, though, made note of the offensive language and raised doubt about Pakistan’s ability to be objective about the war against Iran, a country that has repeatedly called to erase Israel from the map.Jerusalem “views very gravely these blatant antisemitic blood libels from a government claiming to ‘mediate peace,’” Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote on X above Mr. Asif’s posting. “Calling the Jewish state ‘cancerous’ is effectively calling for its annihilation. Israel will defend itself against terrorists who vow its destruction.”Pakistan has emerged as the top interlocutor in efforts to mediate an end to the war. “From the very beginning, the position that we took was very objective and based on solid principles,” its UN ambassador, Mr. Ahmad, told the Sun on Thursday. He added that Islamabad is in a perfect position to host talks. “We have our long-standing relations with all of these countries and the GCC, Iran, U.S., and then wider partnerships with Egypt and Turkey and China,” Mr. Ahmad said. “Pakistan emerged as a country which could play this role, which has channels of communications open with all the parties and other relevant actors, and which could bring them together.”Pakistan, though, has no diplomatic relation with Israel. Mr. Ahmad and other Islamabad officials often condemn the Jewish state with harsh language that at times resembles that of the Iranian Islamic Republic’s genocidal statements. Mr. Asif’s post on Thursday seemed to be his reaction to a dispute between President Trump and Pakistan over whether Lebanon was included in the Pakistani-brokered ceasefire agreement that was declared on Monday. Israel conducted a large attack on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon a day after the deal was struck.Mr. Asif “was forced” to delete the post, Kan News reports, citing an unidentified “source close to the prime minister.” Military and political leadership in Pakistan were angered by the defense minister’s posting, the report says, viewing it as undermining de-escalation efforts led by Islamabad.

Venomous Posting Raises Doubt About Pakistan’s Status as an Honest Broker in Iran Peace Talks

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