Failure on Palestine ‘moral stain and persistent threat to peace,’ top Pakistani diplomat tells UN moot

Addressing the international conference on Palestine at the UN in New York on Monday, Dar said the Palestinian question is a test case for the world body and the international community.

“Pakistan reaffirms its unwavering and principled support for the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination, including their right to a viable, independent and contiguous state of Palestine, based on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” he said.

He said Islamabad opposed illegal Israeli settlements and annexation, especially in West Bank and East Jerusalem.

“This prolonged injustice is not just a political failure, but a moral stain and a persistent threat to international peace and security,” Dar said.

“Justice delayed is indeed justice denied, but when justice is denied for generations, its consequences are far more devastating,” he told the participants.

Dar, who is also the deputy prime minister, demanded effective international accountability for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip.

He called for an “immediate, unconditional and permanent” ceasefire across Gaza Strip; full and unimpeded humanitarian access, especially life-saving food and medicine to the enclave, “reinforced political and financial” support for UNRWA (UN agency for Palestinian refugees), and the “reinvigoration of a genuine and irreversible” political process to end the occupation of Palestinian territories and realization of the two-state solution.

“We must give hope to the Palestinian people. The occupation must end, and end now,” the foreign minister said. “It is time for freedom, self-determination and statehood, and Palestine’s full membership of the UN. That will be the best guarantee for lasting peace in the region.”

The three-day international conference on finding a peaceful resolution to the Palestinian issue and implementing a two-state solution began at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday.

The conference is co-chaired by France and Saudi Arabia, and has established eight working groups, each focusing on a different theme. It focuses on concrete, time-bound steps that can be taken to implement a two-state solution in light of current developments.

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