Pakistan has “very large” and “effective” armed forces that have proven their capabilities in conventional warfare, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said during an interview to Al Jazeera when asked about the possible position Islamabad would take in case a united body in the Middle East was formed to stop Israeli aggression.
The interview, recorded ahead of an Arab-Islamic summit on Israel’s recent strikes in Qatar and published late on Monday night, saw Dar in conversation with Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javed. who asked the foreign minister if the formation of a united body in the Middle East, away from the United Nations structure, to intervene in Gaza was an option on the table.
To that, Dar began his response by mentioning that “vis a vis UN Security Council, a mechanism could be chalked out”.
“For example, they have [imposed] very serious sanctions on countries that don’t listen to them. And that is a very severe economic dent or pain they can cause to any country.”
He then went on to say that there had been talk along the lines of “some sort of combined security force” during recent interactions among Arab nations and the Arab League.
Dar added, “Why not? What’s wrong with that? They should [have a combined force]. And according to their own capacity, own strength, they should create some mechanism. Not for aggression purpose [sic], but for peaceful purpose[s], for stopping the aggressor, for stopping the occupier, for stopping someone who just doesn’t listen.”
Where would a “nuclear-powered Pakistan” stand with that, asked Javed.
“Nuclear-powered Pakistan, obviously, as a member of the ummah, would discharge its duty,” replied Dar.
Javed then asked him to further elaborate in his answer.
In his response, Dar clarified that Pakistan saw nuclear weapons only as a deterrence and didn’t intend to use them. “We have no intention of using it; it is only a deterrence.”
He continued: “But Pakistan has a very large, known, very effective army, very effective air force, very effective navy … We have proved that we can beat [our opponent] even conventionally, if challenged.”
Earlier in the interview, recent strikes by Israel in Qatar that targeted Hamas leaders in Doha also came up.
Sharing his views on the subject, Dar said Israel’s reasons to attack a sovereign country were “totally baseless”. He pointed out that Qatar was mediating talks, along with the US and Egypt, for peace in Gaza when that attack happened, terming Israel’s actions “rogue”.
Dar highlighted that Israel had attacked multiple countries in the Middle East and said that international laws, international humanitarian rules and Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and UN Security Council resolutions seemed to have “no effect on one country, which is repeatedly doing what it feels like”.
“That means [the] multilateral system needs very serious reforms right now … This is the need of the hour. I think the UN Security Council, as well as the UN system itself needs very serious reforms.
“The UN Security Council is meant to maintain peace in the world. And if its resolutions are just put in the bin, as it is happening since so many years — [by] Israel in Gaza and Palestine and by India in Kashmir — what do we expect from the multilateral system?”
Asked whether all Muslim countries in the world were carrying equal weight and “doing the jobs they should be doing”, Dar said Pakistan believed that no matter how big or small a state was, their “dignity and respect should be equal”.
In this connection, he always gave the example of India, mentioning that “some country claimed to have hegemony, to be the net security provider, to be the captain of the entire region”.
But “you saw what happened between May 7 and 10. It’s all settled. The hegemony is buried,” he added, referring to a four-day armed escalation between India and Pakistan.
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