Officials from Pakistan may have met with officials in Israel, as per a recent media report

In a new development, that could bring a major change, officials from Pakistan may have met with officials in Israel amid rumours that Pakistan wants to normalize ties with Israel, as per a recent media report.

Pakistan on December 17 had resorted to its malicious ways and spewed venom against India in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), weeks after UAE banned Pakistani workers from entering its territory. Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, during his UAE visit, made a shocking remark on India.

The founder of the British think tank Islamic Theology of Counter-Terrorism, Noor Dahri, has not ruled out this possibility, according to a report by The Jerusalem Post on December 17. Dahri posted on Twitter saying, "soon I am going to disclose a recent secret but a successful meeting between the Pakistani politician and Israeli politicians in Tel Aviv".

The Jerusalem Post quoted an interview with Dahri saying that "Pakistan has been publicly hostile to Israel over the Palestinian issue, but there is a long history of covert ties between the two countries". He added that there has been a shift of "geopolitical reality in which such relations with Israel are no longer taboo in the Arab and Muslim world", as reported by The Jerusalem Post.

Earlier in 2020, the United Arab Emirates approved an agreement to establish full diplomatic relation with Israel that was signed in Washington. The UAE and fellow Gulf state Bahrain in September became the first Arab states in a quarter of a century to sign agreements to establish formal ties with Israel.

“Together the UAE and Israel will stand better prepared to confront the malign threats from the Iranian regime, their proxies, and other extremist groups,” US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had said.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post, Dahri further added that "Arab countries want Pakistan to openly establish ties with Israel". "The Arab states want to break Pakistan away from Turkey and the Iranian alliance and bring it into their emerging diplomatic circle with Israel, Dahri was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post.

The Jerusalem Post also quoted him saying that "Saudi Arabia has the UAE generated pressure on Pakistan to normalize relations with Israel, as well as minimize relations with Turkey".

He added that with a deal with Israel, Pakistan "is hoping" that it "would help it improve its ties with Saudi Arabia which has stopped financial assistance and oil exports to Pakistan". On the other hand, Pakistan's ties with the UAE have hit a low point as the UAE has halted visas for Pakistan citizen.

Rattled by UAE preferring Indian workers and banning those from Pakistan, Qureshi made this remark. The Pakistan FM said that he has "credible information that India was planning a surgical strike against Pakistan to divert attention from its internal affairs", as reported by Pakistani media Dawn.

Dawn quoted him as saying that the "credible information" was "picked up by intelligence". "An important development has cropped...I've learned through our intelligence forces...that India is planning a surgical strike against Pakistan," Dawn quoted him as saying.

As per a Zee News report in November, the coronavirus pandemic is rapidly reshaping global geopolitics and diplomacy and a number of countries are seizing the opportunity to take a couple of tough decisions that they would have otherwise faced difficulty in implementing. In a recent move to ensure its national security and law and order, the UAE government, through an order issued on November 18 has banned workers from 13 nations from entering the country till further orders.

Citing a source, a story of Al Jazeera highlighted, “the UAE had temporarily stopped issuing new visas to Afghans, Pakistanis, and citizens of several other countries over security concerns.” The list of the countries included war-torn nations like Syria, Somalia, Iraq, Yemen, and Afghanistan to countries from the anti-Saudi bloc like Turkey and Pakistan.

It also highlighted that Pakistan has been facing the heat before the issuance of the order banning workers from 13 countries. The news report highlighted, “Last week, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said the UAE had stopped processing new visas for its citizens and those of some other countries.. Islamabad said it was seeking information from the UAE on the reason for the suspension but that it thought it was related to the coronavirus pandemic.”

News reports from the Pakistani media reveal that the Pakistani government was not at all informed about the decision. The Pakistani leadership has begun to target the UAE government as it believes that this step is ‘Pakistan specific’ and pandemic is not the actual reason to ban Pakistani workers. Senator Anwar Baig, who also runs a recruitment agency said, “the novel coronavirus was the reason behind the ban, India should have been in the list since it has reported one of the highest cases in the world... the suspension of work or employment visas were worrisome and he believed that the ban was Pakistan specific.”

Meanwhile, India and Israel on Monday signed an agreement to cooperate in the fields of health and medicine, including sharing of expertise in building climate-resilient infrastructure and support to 'green healthcare'. The agreement was signed between Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Gabi Ashkenazi, and India's Ambassador to Israel, Sanjeev Singla, on behalf of the Indian government.

The new pact replaces the previous one signed in September 2003, a press statement said. Ashkenazi expressed satisfaction on the ongoing cooperation between the two countries, underlining the joint efforts in dealing with COVID-19. Ashkenazi emphasised on further strengthening cooperation in the sector of water management. The new agreement includes sharing of expertise for facilitating climate-resilient infrastructure, as well as providing support for the development of "green healthcare", i.E. Climate-resilient hospitals.

The two countries have also committed to sharing their expertise for vulnerability assessment for the health of citizens against climate risk and public health actions targeted towards mitigation and adaptation, as well as facilitating climate-resilient infrastructure (hospitals) promoting "green healthcare".