KARACHI: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Munir Akram this week called for the international community to take “decisive steps” to realize the two-state solution in the Middle East, reiterating Islamabad’s stance that it was the only path for durable peace in the region.
Pakistan is among the most vocal countries that have called on Israel to announce an unconditional and immediate ceasefire in Gaza. Islamabad has denounced what it refers to as Israel’s “genocide” against Palestinians and has often urged at international forums for the international community to intervene and stop Israel’s military operations.
Israel launched its air and ground war in Gaza after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israeli communities across the border on Oct. 7 last year, killing 1,200 people and taking over 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Gaza’s Health Ministry says that Israel’s military campaign since then has killed more than 44,500 Palestinians and injured many others.
Speaking at the United Nations Special Session on Palestine on Wednesday, Akram noted that Arab and Islamic countries had advocated the international community review Israel’s UN membership and terminate trade with it.
“At the same time, we need to take decisive steps to realize the two-state solution, which offers the only and globally accepted path toward durable peace and security in the Middle East,” Akram said.
The Pakistani envoy called for the official recognition of Palestine as a state and the earliest possible admission of Palestine as a full member of the UN.
He condemned Israel’s military aggression in Gaza, saying that the Islamic world will never forget it.
“The people of the Islamic world will not forget or forgive Israel’s crimes,” Akram said. “Popular resistance to Israeli occupation will not end. It will intensify.”
Pakistan currently does not recognize the state of Israel over its thwarting of Palestinians’ aspirations for a state of their own. Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem, the Sinai peninsula and the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights in the 1967 Middle East war.
