ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, on Tuesday criticized Israel for using “aggression as a tool of policy” in the Middle East, condemning Israeli military actions against regional states and demanding an end to its 20-month war on Gaza.

Dar said this while addressing a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization’s (SCO) Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which came in the backdrop of heightened tensions in South Asia and the Middle East, particularly after the Pakistan-India conflict and Israeli military actions against several Gulf countries.

Israel’s war on Gaza, which began after Oct. 2023 attacks by Hamas on Israel, has killed more than 58,000 Palestinians, over half of them women and children, according to the Palestinian health ministry. On Tuesday, the UN rights office said it had recorded at least 875 killings within the past six weeks at aid points in Gaza.

Speaking at the CFM meeting, Dar said Pakistan was seriously concerned at the trends of using aggression as a tool of policy, emphasizing the resolution of disputes through peaceful means and according to the principles of international law, justice and fairness.

“Israel has shown a reckless disregard for international norms and humanity through its relentless and disproportionate use of force in Gaza resulting in the death of tens of thousands of civilians causing the worst humanitarian crisis in Gaza,” he said.

“We call for immediate halt to Israel’s atrocities.”

Dar said the only viable remedy to the Palestine dispute was the realization of the two-state solution, which includes the establishment of Palestine as a viable, secure and contiguous state on the basis of pre-1967 borders.

He also condemned the “unjustified and illegitimate aggression” by Israel against Iran and the United States (US) strikes on its nuclear facilities.

“Such illegal actions directed against SCO member states are unacceptable,” Dar said.

The 12-day war between Iran and Israel, which began on June 13 Israeli airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities and military leadership, killed around 1,000 Iranians and more than two dozen Israelis.

The SCO, comprising China, Russia, Pakistan, India, Iran, Belarus and Central Asian states, is seen by some Western analysts as a regional grouping by Beijing and Moscow to counter United States influence in Asia.

The CFM meeting, a key diplomatic gathering aimed at preparing the groundwork for the upcoming SCO Leaders’ Summit later this year, was convened to review progress on multilateral cooperation and set the agenda for endorsement by heads of state.