ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign office spokesperson confirmed on Thursday that Islamabad has not established direct contact with the new Syrian leadership yet, reiterating that it supports a solution that upholds the unity and territorial integrity of the Middle Eastern state.
Opposition forces in Syria, after lightening military campaigns, seized the capital Damascus in December 2024 as then-President Bashar Assad fled to Russia. The Syrian leader was ousted after 13 years of civil war and more than 50 years of his family’s rule over the country.
Days after Assad was ousted, Pakistan said it supported an “inclusive political process” in Syria and believed that the Middle Eastern nation’s future should be determined by its people without foreign interference.
“I would not like to comment on specific details, but at this stage we do not have direct contacts with the leadership of Syria,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in response to a question. “But our embassy remains active in Syria.”
She said the Pakistani government has consistently supported efforts aimed at finding a “comprehensive solution” to the situation in Syria.
“The solution that upholds the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria,” Baloch said, adding that Pakistan believes the future of Syria should correspond to the aspirations of the Syrian people for security, stability and development.
“And Pakistan will continue to promote peace and stability in Syria,” she said.
Following Assad family’s ouster after over five decades in power, opposition forces’ leader Ahmad Al-Sharaa’s Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) stamped its authority on the Syrian state with the same lightning speed it seized the country.
The HTS deployed police, installed an interim government and has been meeting foreign envoys, raising concerns over how inclusive Damascus’ new rulers intend to be.
The appointment of Mohammed Al-Bashir, the head of the regional government in HTS’ enclave of Idlib, as Syria’s new interim prime minister last month underlined the group’s status as the most powerful of the armed groups that battled for more than 13 years to end Assad’s iron-fisted rule.
Pakistan says not in contact with new Syrian leadership, supports efforts to uphold country’s unity
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Pakistan says not in contact with new Syrian leadership, supports efforts to uphold country’s unity
- Pakistan believes Syria’s future should correspond to aspirations of the Syrian people, says foreign office
- Opposition forces in Syria ousted former president Bashar Assad in December after lightening offensives
Pakistan says multilateralism in peril, urges global powers to prioritize diplomacy over confrontation
- The country tells the UN international security system is eroding, asks rival blocs to return to dialogue
- It emphasizes lowering of international tensions, rebuilding of channels of communication among states
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan warned the world community on Monday that multilateralism was “in peril” amid rising global tensions, urging major powers to revive diplomacy and dialogue to prevent a further breakdown in international security.
Speaking at a UN Security Council briefing, Pakistan’s ambassador to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, said the world was drifting toward confrontation at a time when cooperative mechanisms were weakening.
His comments came during a session addressed by Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen, chairing the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the world’s largest regional security body.
Formed out of the 1975 Helsinki Final Act, the OSCE was designed during the Cold War to reduce tensions, uphold principles of sovereignty and human rights and promote mechanisms for peaceful dispute resolution.
“Today, the foundational ethos of international relations, multilateralism, cooperation and indivisible security, as envisaged in the preamble of Helsinki Final Act, is perhaps facing its biggest challenge in decades,” Ahmed said. “The OSCE, too, is navigating a difficult geopolitical landscape, with conflict raging in the heart of Europe for nearly four years, depletion of trust and unprecedented strains on peaceful co-existence.”
He said a return to the “Helsinki spirit” of dialogue, confidence-building and cooperative security was urgently needed, not only in Europe but globally.
“This is not a matter of choice but a strategic imperative to lower tensions, rebuild essential channels of communication, and demonstrate that comprehensive security is best preserved through cooperative instruments, and not by the pursuit of hegemony and domination through military means,” he said. “Objective, inclusive, impartial, and principle-based approaches are indispensable for success.”
Ahmed’s statement came in a year when Pakistan itself fought a brief but intense war after India launched missile strikes at its city in May following a militant attack in Indian-administered Kashmir. New Delhi blamed Pakistan for the assault, an allegation Islamabad denied while calling for a transparent international investigation.
The Pakistani diplomat said the international system was increasingly defined by bloc politics, mistrust and militarization, warning that such trends undermine both regional stability and the authority of multilateral institutions, including the UN itself.
He urged member states to invest more in preventive diplomacy and the peaceful settlement of disputes as reaffirmed by the Council in Resolution 2788.
Ahmad said Pakistan hoped the OSCE would continue reinforcing models of cooperative security and that the Security Council would back partnerships that strengthen international law and the credibility of multilateral frameworks.
The path forward, he added, required “choosing cooperation over confrontation, dialogue over division, and inclusive security over bloc-based divides.”
