Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, while conveying a message of Pakistan’s standing with the Muslim Ummah as a nuclear power, said that Pakistan’s armed forces are “very large” and “effective” and have proven their capabilities in conventional warfare.
In an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera, Ishaq Dar said this in response to a question about Islamabad’s stance if a joint institution was established to stop Israeli aggression in the Middle East.
The interview was broadcast late on Monday night in which Al Jazeera’s Osama bin Javed spoke to Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar. He asked the Foreign Minister whether the option of forming a joint institution in the Middle East outside the purview of the United Nations to intervene in Gaza was being considered.
In response, Ishaq Dar initially said that ‘a mechanism can be devised along the lines of the Security Council, for example, they have imposed very strict sanctions on countries that do not obey them, and this can cause a very severe economic blow or inconvenience to any country’.
The host asked whether there was any talk of ‘some kind of joint security force’ between the Arab countries and the Arab League in the recent talks?
‘There should be a joint army of the Arab countries’
Ishaq Dar said, ‘Why not? What is wrong with that? They should have a joint army, and according to their capacity and strength, they should devise a mechanism, the aim of which is not aggression but establishing peace, to stop the aggressor and the occupier, to stop the person who does not listen to anyone’.
To the host’s question as to where ‘nuclear-armed Pakistan’ would stand in this situation? Ishaq Dar replied, ‘Pakistan, which has nuclear power, will fulfill its duty as a member of the Ummah.’
The host then said that he would like further clarification on this answer, to which the Deputy Prime Minister clarified that Pakistan considers nuclear weapons only as a deterrent force against the enemy and does not intend to use them, we have no intention of using nuclear weapons, they are only for ‘deterrence’.
He said, ‘But Pakistan has a very large, well-known, very effective army, a very effective air force, a very effective navy, we have proven that even if challenged traditionally, we can defeat our adversary.’
During the interview, the Israeli attack on Hamas leaders in Qatar was also mentioned, expressing his views on this, Ishaq Dar said that Israel’s reasons for attacking a sovereign country are ‘completely baseless’.
He pointed out that when the attack took place, Qatar was mediating talks to establish peace in Gaza with the US and Egypt, and Ishaq Dar described Israel’s action as “irresponsible.”
He stressed that Israel has attacked several countries in the Middle East and that international law, humanitarian principles, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and Security Council resolutions have no effect on a country that repeatedly takes actions according to its own whims.
“This means that the multilateral system urgently needs serious reforms,” Ishaq Dar said.
‘Whether a state is big or small, its dignity and respect should be equal’
He said that ‘the United Nations Security Council was formed to maintain peace in the world, and if its resolutions are simply thrown in the trash, as Israel, Gaza and Palestine have been doing for many years, while India has been doing it in Kashmir, then what can we expect from this multilateral system?’
When asked whether all Muslim countries of the world carry equal weight and are ‘playing the role they should play?’ Ishaq Dar said that Pakistan believes that whether a state is big or small, its ‘honor and respect should be equal’.
In this regard, he always gives the example of India and says, ‘Some countries claim that they have supremacy, are the security providers of the region, are the captains of the entire region, but you saw what happened between May 7 and 10, everything became clear, supremacy was buried’, Ishaq Dar was actually referring to the 4-day armed conflict between Pakistan and India.
The Deputy Prime Minister further said that at that time, Pakistan’s military action was actually in defense.
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‘Diplomacy and negotiations are the best option on the Gaza issue’
In response to a supplementary question, he said that in his opinion, diplomacy and negotiations are the best option on the Gaza issue. It takes time, but when you sit at the table, you can reach a solution. But if you are not ready to sit at the table, if you are not sincere and you have negative and evil intentions like expansionism, then you will never be serious in negotiations. Therefore, sincerity is also important in negotiations.
When he was asked whether Israel could attack Pakistan after Qatar, Ishaq Dar reminded that India had tried this and according to our information, Israel provided it with full cooperation and the world saw that this claim was exposed.
‘There has to be a mechanism to implement the resolutions of the Security Council’
He said, ‘We are ready, I repeat again that we want peace, a nuclear-armed state does not want instability in the region because its effects will go beyond the region’, he also stressed that collective efforts are needed to reform the resolutions of the Security Council.
He said that Israel and India are the only countries that do not abide by the resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, he stressed that a mechanism should be developed in the Security Council that can take practical steps so that if the resolutions are not implemented, the situation can be brought under control and this may require practical actions or practical interventions.
