NEW YORK: At the United Nations, Pakistan has called for pursuing diplomatic solutions to the violence-ravaged parts of the Middle East.
Speaking in a debate on the Middle East at Security Council in New York, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the world body Dr. Maleeha Lodhi said it is time to bring an end to the tragedy of Palestine.
She said as international efforts to bring an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people have faltered, the burning cauldron of anger and the pervasive sense of injustice have inescapably sowed the seeds of violence in the entire region. The Pakistani envoy said the fundamental tenets of the two-state solution are being systematically dismantled in plain sight of the international community.
She said long-standing Security Council resolutions on the status of Jerusalem and Israel’s illegal settlement expansion into occupied territories continued to be flouted.
She also said that the Israeli decision to dismantle the Bedouin community of Khan al-Ahmar revealed its policy of forcibly displacing Palestinians from their land. In addition, Ambassador Lodhi said, “the killing fields of Gaza continue to be drenched with the blood of innocent Palestinians — over 200 civilians have been killed since peaceful protests began in March 2018, including another seven on 12 October.”
Reaffirming Pakistan’s commitment to the Palestinian cause, she urged the international community to continue to lend its voice in support of a two-state solution based on agreed parameters, including pre-1967 borders and with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of the Palestinian state.
