*Deputy PM urges
world to resolve Palestinian problem
* Announces Israeli forces’ withdrawal this year
A top Israeli official again voiced his government’
strong desire for establishing diplomatic ties with Pakistan,
strongly rebuffing media reports that Israeli intelligence
agencies are maintaining a tight watch on the sole nuclear
Islamic state.
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister
Yahod Almarat in a special chat with Online argued that
Mossad, the Israeli secret service, is not monitoring
the Pakistani installations at all. “Pakistan is
not on the monitoring list of Baghdad-based investigating
unit of Mossad and the media reports in this regard are
merely rubbish,” he said.
Mr Almarat stressed dedicated
efforts by the international community to bring peace
and stability in Middle East. “The intriguing Palestinian
imbroglio could be resolved if the world powers come up
with more sincere and serious efforts,” he said.
Earlier, the Israeli deputy
prime minister addressed a seminar on, “Israeli
peace agenda” arranged by the International Institute
of Strategic Studies in London.
He informed the participants
that Israel would take the initiative in bringing peace
to the region. “We will go for the unilateral decision
of the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian
territory this year,” he announced.
Mr Almarat rejected the
assertion that the present Israeli government was pursuing
an extremism agenda in the region. He said the present
government had emerged as the only regime in history to
support a two state solution. “We’re optimistic
that our sincere efforts will bear fruits and the ongoing
resistance against the Israeli rule will be scaled down,”
he said.
The deputy prime minister
raised that “if the Palestinians talk of their 100-year-old
occupation in the area, the Jews presence in Jerusalem
dates back to 3,000”, adding that this provides
a solid ground for our occupation on Israel.
About his government’s
standpoint on possible terrorist activity after Israeli
forces’ withdrawal, he reiterated Israeli commitment
of not entering the deserted territory again.
However, he said, “We’ll
continue fighting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.”
On the status of Palestinian
regime, Mr Almarat said it was to be decided only by the
Palestinian Authority whether it was an Islamic extremist
state or would like to adopt a democratic government for
its people.
