WASHINGTON: Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council to promote political solutions to the problems that have political reasons, such as the Kashmir dispute.

Addressing the first meeting of the Special Committee on Peacekeeping Operations of the 2021 session, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Munir Akram also underlined the shortcomings of the current UN strategy for resolving disputes.

“Obviously, politics governs everything. The new threats we confront have political causes and ultimately, political solutions,” Ambassador Akram said. “Peacekeeping is not equipped to assume the responsibility to resolve such conflicts, insurgencies and cross-border attacks.”

The Kashmir dispute was first brought to the United Nations in 1948 and has remained unresolved since then, although it has already caused two wars and hundreds of border skirmishes between India and Pakistan.

In August 2019, India forcibly annexed its illegally occupied parts of Jammu and Kashmir, further aggravating a dangerous stand-off between South Asia’s two nuclear powers.

The Palestinian dispute is even older as it was referred to the United Nations in 1945 and remains unresolved.

“The international community, including the Security Council, has been unable to find political solutions to several longstanding disputes — such as the one over Jammu and Kashmir, where one of the oldest UN missions is stationed,” said Ambassador Akram.

“Conflicts — such as inter-State and intra-State eruptions — have proliferated and escalated in recent years, causing massive suffering and human rights violations, and posing threats to international peace and security,” he added.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2021