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World Jewish News
The Muslim Countries of the CIS May "Freeze" Relations with Israel
31.12.2008
Israeli diplomats who deal with the post-Soviet countries fear that the operation in Gaza will hurt the plans to intensify relations with the republics of Central Asia.
"The Kazakh embassy in Tel Aviv is completing the accumulation of information on military operations in the Gaza Strip in order to prepare recommendations to their superiors in Astana. On the basis of these recommendations a decision will be taken: whether to respond formally to the events in Gaza, and if so, what response to give," said a source in the Israeli diplomatic agency, whp works in the post-Soviet territory, on Wednesday morning, December 31.
As previously mentioned by the IzRus portal, only Azerbaijan of the six Muslim republics of the CIS has formally reacted to the operation in the Gaza Strip by condemning Israel's actions. The Central Asian countries still remain silent.
"Whether they decide to respond, and what will be the tone of their reaction - this will largely determine the nature of our bilateral relations in the coming year. If the leadership of these republics criticizes Israel, it is likely to mean that the plans to intensify relations in 2009 will lose their relevance. As has already been made clear by our Central Asian colleagues, this is how the reaction of these countries to the events in Gaza should be understood," said the above mentioned source.
In this context, Israeli diplomats are closely following the nuances of the behavior of their Kazakh and Uzbek colleagues. These are two major states of Central Asia, and they have the most "advanced" relations with Israel. Out of the five Central Asian countries, these are the two republics that have embassies in Tel Aviv. Now Israeli diplomats are worried that the operation in Gaza can destroy the plans to intensify relations with them. Especially since the first steps in this direction have already been scheduled for March-April 2009 (including a visit by one of the major figures of Israel to both these Central Asian republics).
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