ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday expressed the hope that the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) would send out a strong message to Israel to end hostilities in occupied Palestinian territories and move towards a just solution of the longstanding dispute.

“We hope that the special meeting of the UN General Assembly would help send a strong message on behalf of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to the international community to help end the Israeli aggression and to take concrete steps to find a just solution to the Palestinian issue,” Foreign Office Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said at the weekly media briefing.

An urgent meeting of the UNGA on Palestine started on Thursday. The meeting had been sought by the OIC and the Arab Group at the UN.

The OIC moved to convene the meeting after the UN Security Council failed to call for a ceasefire. The Security Council has met four times, but the US has been blocking an outcome statement.

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi is currently in New York to participate in the UNGA meeting.

Asks for an end to dishonest equivalences between the aggressor and the victims

Outlining Pakistan’s priorities for the General Assembly meeting, the spokesman said Pakistan would like to see an immediate end to attacks by Israeli forces in Gaza and the West Bank; stopping of forced evictions, which are in violation of Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Convention; and holding Israel accountable for its crimes against the Palestinian people.

The spokesman asked for an end to dishonest equivalences between Israel, the aggressor, and Palestinians, the victims; and unequivocally identifying the acts of aggression.

He said the Palestine issue needed to be resolved as per international parameters of a two-state solution based on the UN and OIC resolutions, with pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al Shareef as the capital of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestine.

“We believe there is a need to mobilise the international community, including the United Nations and the OIC, to formulate a collective strategy to bring an end to the ongoing Israeli aggression and seek a just resolution of the Palestine issue,” Mr Chaudhri said.

Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts, he said, were aimed at formulating a unified and unequivocal response from the international community against the Israeli aggression. In this regard, he recalled, Prime Minister Imran Khan held telephonic conversations with President of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

FM Qureshi, meanwhile, held interactions with his counterparts from a number of countries including Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkey and the US. He also attended the virtual open-ended emergency meeting of the OIC executive committee to discuss Israel’s aggression against the Palestinians.

In reply to a question regarding the inquiry against diplomats recalled from Saudi Arabia for poor services for the expatriate community and similar complaints from other countries, the spokesman said a taskforce had been created under Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood and a new complaint portal was being established in the Foreign Minister’s Office for prompt redressal of public complaints.

Published in Dawn, May 21st, 2021