CAIRO: The Arab League Political Commit­tee agreed today [Feb 3] to work for the permanent settlement of about 700,000 Pales­tine Arab refugees … [“]as a matter of urge­­ncy”. But their claim for eventual repatriation would not be abandoned. The … Committee also decided to continue to co-operate with United Nations Relief Agencies... . About 400,000 Palestine Arab Refugees are in Eastern Palestine, now incorporated into Jordan[;] 200,000 in Gaza, under Egyptian military occupation[;] and the rest … in Syria, the Lebanon and Iraq.

[Meanwhile, as reported by news agencies in Quetta,] “I can tell you … the people of Afghanistan are not hostile to Pakistan. They have great regard for Pakistan and the Afghan Government would never succeed in inciting them to violence against Pakistan,” Major Ghulam Siddiq Khan of the Afghan Army told a ... meeting here last evening [Feb 2]. …

Speaking in Persian, [Maj Khan] said that the ruling clique in Afghanistan has two main objectives…: to keep the Afghan masses under their despotic subjection and to please Bharat by indulging in unprovoked anti-Pakistan activities and propaganda in Afghanistan and abroad.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2026