Pakistan Minister's Israel Remarks Stir Controversy Before US-Iran Talks

Pakistan's defense minister sparked international controversy on April 9, 2026, by posting inflammatory remarks on social media that condemned Israel as "evil and a curse for humanity" and accused it of genocide, just as Islamabad prepared to host high-stakes ceasefire talks between the United States and Iran. The post by Khawaja Muhammad Asif was deleted from X later that day amid backlash from Israeli officials, though it remained on his Facebook account as of April 10.

In the message, Asif wrote that while peace negotiations were underway in Islamabad, "genocide is being committed in Lebanon. Innocent citizens are being killed by Israel, first Gaza, then Iran and now Lebanon, bloodletting continues unabated." He described Israel as a "cancerous state" created on Palestinian land "to get rid of European Jews" and expressed hope that those responsible would "burn in hell." The remarks came hours before U.S. and Iranian delegations were scheduled to arrive in the Pakistani capital for indirect talks aimed at solidifying a two-week temporary truce announced earlier that week.

The truce, brokered through Pakistani mediation, sought to end a war between the U.S., Israel, and Iran...