ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister has held talks with the Palestinian representative to the United Nations in New York and denounced Israel’s latest measures to tighten control over the occupied West Bank, the foreign ministry said on Thursday. 

Israel’s cabinet approved measures this month aimed at tightening administrative control over the West Bank, including easing land purchases by settlers and expanding settlement governance in the territory Palestinians seek for a future state.

Palestinians have described the steps as a “de-facto annexation,” while Israel says the changes regulate land administration and infrastructure. The developments come amid heightened international scrutiny of the Gaza war and renewed diplomatic efforts toward a two-state solution.

“The DPM/FM strongly condemned Israel’s recent measures to expand control over the Occupied West Bank and its continued ceasefire violations in Gaza,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said in a statement after Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar met Riyadh Mansour, the Permanent Representative of the State of Palestine to the United Nations, on the sidelines of a United Nations briefing in New York.

The West Bank, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war, is widely regarded by the international community as occupied territory, and settlement expansion there is considered illegal under international law and a major obstacle to a future Palestinian state.

According to the foreign ministry statement, Pakistan reaffirmed its “unwavering support for the Palestinian people, including their right to self-determination,” and expressed readiness to support diplomatic initiatives, including President Donald Trump’s peace plan, the Board of Peace mechanism and broader international efforts aimed at resolving the conflict.

Mansour thanked Pakistan for what the ministry described as its “steadfast and principled support” for the Palestinian cause at the United Nations and other international forums.

Pakistan has long advocated a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as the capital of a Palestinian state and has recently stepped up diplomatic engagement as international mediation efforts intensify following months of conflict in Gaza.