The Foreign Office (FO) said on Friday it had “no information” about the interaction of the prime minister’s tourism coordinator, Sardar Yasir Ilyas, with an Israeli ministry official in London.
The spokesperson was asked about the incident after a video of the interaction began circulating on social media. It was filmed during the World Travel Market event in London, which took place from November 4 to 6, 2025.
In the video, Ilyas could be seen shaking hands and chatting with an individual later identified as the Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism, Michael Izhar-Kov.
A translation of Israeli journalist Rai Kais’s Article
However, London journalist Murtaza Ali Shah claimed in a post on X that “a group of people from Israel visited the Pakistan Pavilion without prior notice and met the Pakistani delegation without showing up.”
Asked during a weekly press briefing about the interaction, FO spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said: “I have no information about this meeting. The gentleman you are referring to is a public figure. I would ask you to ask him about the meeting. I have no information about it.”
Reacting to the video, former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan wrote on
He added: “The visit of the Israeli tourism director general to the Pakistani pavilion is shameful, it is rubbing salt in the wounds of Pakistanis.
I condemn this in the strongest terms; “The nation will not forgive the traitors of the Palestinian people.”
The renowned writer Fatima Bhutto intervened: “Disgusting betrayal. Shaking hands dripping with Palestinian blood.”
Meanwhile, PTI leader and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari questioned, “It is not a question of when it happened but how it happened!”
“There is no decision on participation in the International Stabilization Force”
The FO spokesperson was also asked about Pakistan’s participation in the International Stabilization Force (ISF).
A cornerstone of the US-brokered Gaza Peace Agreement is the establishment of the ISF, made up primarily of troops from Muslim-majority countries. Last month, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif had said that the decision on sending Pakistani troops to Gaza peacekeepers was still being finalized and was “in progress”.
Today, the spokesperson said that “no decision has been made yet on Pakistan’s participation.”
“The exact role or mandate of the International Stabilization Force itself is being discussed in the UN Security Council. I don’t think the Security Council has made a decision yet. So this is an evolving process,” Andrabi clarified.
He continued: “We are committed in the sense that Pakistan is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council and is conducting these negotiations as a member of the Security Council. Therefore, we await the decision of the Security Council.
And as stated above, Pakistan’s participation in the stabilization force will be a decision to be taken at the highest level, including through the participation of Parliament.”
Last month, Pakistan, in a joint statement with 14 other nations, condemned Tel Aviv’s attempt to impose “Israeli sovereignty” over the occupied West Bank, after the Israeli parliament passed bills on the annexation of the West Bank, according to FO.
A few days later, the Ministry of Information also denied claims that the country had removed the clause from their passports that made them invalid for travel to Israel.
Pakistan continues to maintain that it does not recognize Israel and firmly supports the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people, including the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian State based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
