UNITED NATIONS:
As diplomats met in New York on Friday to prepare for an international conference in June, aimed at advancing global efforts towards achieving a two-state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, Pakistan called for addressing the root cause: Israel’s prolonged occupation.
“Only by ending the occupation can we secure a just and lasting peace,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the preparatory session that brought together UN member states to align expectations and finalise arrangements for eight thematic roundtables that will help shape the conference’s outcome.
“This Conference is both timely and essential,” he said, pointing out that Palestinian people’s continued suffering, the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, and the systematic erosion of the two-State solution through illegal settlements and unilateral measures by the occupying power, demand a resolute international response.
The Conference will take place at the UN headquarters in New York from June 17 to 20. It stems from a resolution approved last December by the UN General Assembly and will be co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France.
UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang urged countries to seize the crucial opportunity to finally make progress.
“The horrors we have witnessed in Gaza for over nineteen months should spur us to urgent action to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The devastating cycles of death, destruction, and displacement cannot be allowed to continue,” he said.
“This conflict cannot be resolved through permanent war, nor through endless occupation or annexation. It will only end when Israelis and Palestinians can live side by side in their own sovereign, independent States, in peace, security, and dignity,” President Yang added.
Co-chairs France and Saudi Arabia emphasized the need for the conference to go beyond reaffirming principles and achieve concrete results on the ground.
“We must urgently move from words to deeds. We must move from ending the war in Gaza to ending the conflict itself,” said Anne-Claire Legendre, Middle East and North Africa advisor to French President Emmanuel Macron.
“Faced with the facts on the ground, the prospects of a Palestinian State must be maintained. Irreversible steps and concrete measures for the implementation thereof are necessary.”
Alongside, she reiterated calls for a lasting ceasefire, an immediate influx of humanitarian aid and the release of hostages.
Manal bint Hassan Radwan, head of the Saudi Arabian negotiating team, called the moment “historic,” stating that the preparatory meeting must “chart a course for action, not reflection.”
“Civilians continue to pay the price of a war that must end immediately. The escalation in the West Bank is equally alarming. Despair grows deeper by the day,” she said.
“This is precisely why we must speak not only of ending the war, but of ending a conflict that has lasted nearly eight decades,” she continued, adding efforts to end fighting and secure release of hostages and detainees must be “anchored in a credible and irreversible political plan that addresses the root cause of the conflict and offers a real path to peace, dignity and mutual security.”
In his remarks, Ambassador Asim reaffirmed Pakistan steadfast support for a just, lasting, and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian Question, rooted in international law and relevant UN resolutions, based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of an independent State of Palestine.
“This Conference must serve a turning point, and deliver tangible outcomes,” the Pakistani envoy told delegates.
In the lead-up to June, he said it was imperative to restore and fully implement a ceasefire in Gaza, lift the blockade, ensure unimpeded humanitarian access including through UNRWA , the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, and protect civilians and aid workers.
“Any attempt to forcibly displace Palestinians, annex territory, or impose militarized aid mechanisms must be firmly rejected”.
To preserve the viability of Palestinian statehood, he said among other steps:
— The Conference must establish a mechanism to monitor and promote enforcement of relevant Security Council resolutions, including those which term settlements illegal and efforts made to secure Palestine’s admission as a full UN Member State; and,
— Operationalize the Gaza Reconstruction Plan endorsed by the OIC and Arab Group. Projects such as a Gaza
— West Bank transit corridor, seaport reconstruction, and industrial zones are vital for territorial contiguity and Palestinian unity.
“Pakistan stands ready to support this Conference and contribute to a credible political horizon, for a two-state solution one that upholds Palestinian rights, ends occupation, and delivers durable peace through a viable, sovereign Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital,” Ambassador Asim added.
