Pakistan has reaffirmed its strong support for the Palestinians and underscored the need for implementing relevant UN Security Council resolutions to pave the way for a sovereign state of Palestine, living side-by-side in peace with all its neighbours.
“We again call upon the Security Council to transform its words into resolute action,” Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the U.N., told the 15-member body, the world body’s power centre.
The Council, he said, should ensure mechanism for implementation of its decades-old decisions on Israel and Palestine. “Otherwise it will further undermine its own credibility,” he said while participating in an open debate on the Middle East.
“While we deliberate endlessly in the Security Council,” the Palestinians continue to suffer at the “cruel hands” of an occupation force.
Pakistan ambassador pointed out that Islamic countries were so often the topic of discussion in the Security Council that they might eventually account for 70 percent of its work. He then posed the question: “Shouldn’t we get a permanent seat as well?”
Ambassador Haroon said Israel’s settlement activity continued apace, the Quartet remained frozen in a state of “suspended promises” and the Palestinians seemingly had no recourse to address the matter. Israeli settlement activity was illegal and was systematically reducing the space for establishing a viable Palestinian State. It was a major roadblock to peace and the Security Council should deliver a firm message to Israel that it must stop all settlement activity immediately and move towards peace.
He also stressed that life in the Gaza Strip could not return to normal without free movement of persons and goods, including those essential for reconstruction.
“Palestine faces a dual conundrum — the continued inaction of the international community and the intransigence of Israel,” he said, further stressing that despite “the clarity of our common goal and the framework for peace”, the Security Council and the Quartet were unable to act.
The Palestinian people had nonetheless surmounted overwhelming odds to make progress during the past two years in establishing State institutions, the Pakistan envoy said. The Palestinians were indeed entitled to full United Nations membership.
Pakistan supported lasting peace for all inhabitants of the Middle East, irrespective of religion, ethnicity and nationality, Haroon said. The framework for forward progress was based on relevant Security Council resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, the Arab Peace Initiative and the Quartet-backed Road Map.
“Mustering and sustaining the political will to implement the framework is imperative,” he said, expressing the hope that the international community would lend its moral and political weight to nudging the process towards the shared goal of an independent State of Palestine, living in peace with all its neighbours.”