ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar arrived in Saudi Arabia on Thursday to attend a special Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting focused on the situation in Palestine, state-run media reported.
Dar, who also holds the diplomatic portfolio, will participate in the OIC foreign ministers’ session, scheduled to be held in Jeddah on Friday.
US President Donald Trump announced a plan to permanently uproot more than 2 million Palestinians from Gaza after assuming office, saying his country would turn the area into an international beach resort.
The plan was widely denounced by majority-Muslim nations and global rights organizations, as the US suggested that the Palestinian population could relocate to neighboring Egypt and Jordan.
“Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar arrived in Medina Al-Munawwarah on Thursday,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said.
“He offered prayers at the Masjid-e-Nabawi, seeking the welfare, prosperity, and progress of Pakistan and the Muslim Ummah.”
Pakistan Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar (1L) offers prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia on March 6, 2025. (Photo courtesy: MOFA)
Pakistan’s foreign office earlier said in a social media post that Dar will discuss the deteriorating situation in Palestine and the ensuing humanitarian crisis, and the “illegal and immoral proposals of displacement of Palestinians from their ancestral homeland” at the OIC meeting.
“At the conference, the DPM/FM will reaffirm Pakistan’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people and their just cause,” the foreign office said.
Radio Pakistan reported earlier this week the Pakistani deputy prime minister will advocate for Israel’s full withdrawal from all occupied territories, including Jerusalem, and denounce the proposal for further Palestinian displacement.
Dar will also call for the restoration of the “inalienable rights” of the Palestinian people, including their right to return to their homeland and the establishment of a viable, contiguous and sovereign Palestinian state based on pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Earlier this week, Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian reconstruction plan for Gaza worth $53 billion, which seeks to avoid Palestinian displacement, in contrast to Trump’s “Middle East Riviera” vision.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said on Tuesday Egypt, in cooperation with Palestinians, had worked on creating an administrative committee of independent, professional Palestinian technocrats to govern Gaza after the Israel-Gaza war ends.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif welcomed the Arab League’s approval of the Egyptian plan, urging the United Nations to ensure the implementation of its resolutions calling for a two-state solution in the Middle East.
