How Saudi Arabia Is Pressuring Pakistan to Recognize Israel

By Kunwar Khuldun Shahid

Pakistan’s government achieved a new world record this week: in gaslighting. The subject: persistent rumors that Pakistan is reconsidering its definitive rejection of any moves towards establishing relations with Israel.

Last Thursday, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan revealed, in a TV interview available freely online and widely reported in the local and international press, that in the of Gulf states’ normalization of relations with Israel, the United States and another country are pressuring Islamabad to recognize Israel.

Khan declared that the source of American pressure was “Israel’s deep influence in the U.S. This [influence] was, in fact, extraordinary during Trump’s stint” in office.

But when the interviewer probed if a “brotherly Muslim country” had been among those pushing Pakistan on Israel, Khan told him: “Leave this, let’s move on.” Khan continued: “There are certain things that we cannot say, because our relations with them [the Muslim countries pressuring Pakistan] are good. We don’t want to upset them. Inshallah, let our country stand up on its feet, then ask me such questions.”

Unsurprisingly, Khan’s words made immediate headlines – in fact, they triggered into a full-blown media circus.

Every local publication pushed the story of Khan’s revelation of the pressure being exerted for a move on Israel. Local English newspaper copy was swiftly quoted in the international press. When the leading English daily Dawn republished a report on the interview by Middle East Eye, the story reached its tipping point within Pakistan – and the great gas —lighting began.

The Pakistani government itself tweeted the Foreign Ministry spokesman denying that Pakistan was under any U.S. pressure to recognize Israel, and calling media reports that directly quoted from the Khan interview a “fabrication.”