The Foreign Office (FO) on Friday said it had “no information” about the prime minister’s coordinator on tourism, Sardar Yasir Ilyas, interacting 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 clip, Ilyas could be seen shaking hands with and conversing 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’ X post in Hebrew said: “As you may recall, Pakistan was recently mentioned as one of the countries that may join the international force in Gaza.”
However, London-based journalist Murtaza Ali Shah claimed in a post on X that “a group of individuals from Israel visited the Pakistan Pavilion unannounced and met the Pakistani delegation without introducing themselves.”
Asked during a weekly press briefing about the interaction, the FO spokesperson, Tahir Hussain Andrabi, said: “I have no information on this meeting. The gentleman you referred to is a public figure. I would request you to ask him about the meeting. I have no information on this.”
In a subsequent question on the matter, he said: “I have not seen the report or any information on a meeting of the adviser to the prime minister or any public figure with an Israeli representative. I can assure you that if such a meeting or interaction took place, it was, certainly, without authorisation by the government.”
The FO spokesperson was later asked about previous reports of alleged visits by Pakistani delegations, to which he said: “I can tell you with a certain assurance that they were not authorised or under information of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. If these individuals have violated any passport regulations pertaining to travel to a country disallowed on Pakistan passport, our authorities ought to look into it. I have no information, and I can tell you that these visits or these interactions with Israel are not authorised.”
Reacting to the video, former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan wrote on X, “Shaking hands with the killers of Palestinians is a betrayal of Al-Aqsa, Gaza, and the Palestinians. The handshake, meeting, and conversation during the international exhibition in London between Sardar Yasir Ilyas, Advisor to the Prime Minister of Pakistan on Tourism, and Michael Izhar-Kov, Director General of Israel’s Ministry of Tourism.”
He added: “The visit of the Israeli director-general of tourism to the Pakistani pavilion — this is shameful, it is rubbing salt into the wounds of Pakistanis.
I condemn this in the strongest terms; the nation will not forgive the traitors of the Palestinian people.”
