NEW YORK: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, on Thursday reaffirmed Pakistan’s unwavering support for the Palestinian people, calling for an end to Israeli occupation and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders.
Speaking at a special meeting organised by the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) to commemorate the Nakba, Ambassador Asim said the tragedy of Palestinian displacement remained an ongoing reality marked by occupation, dispossession and denial of rights.
He said more than 750,000 Palestinians were forcibly displaced 78 years ago during the Nakba, adding that millions of Palestinian refugees continue to live in exile while the Right of Return affirmed under UN Resolution 194 remains unfulfilled.
Referring to the ongoing conflict in Gaza, the Pakistani envoy described the situation as the “most devastating contemporary manifestation” of the Nakba.
He said Gaza had endured devastating Israeli attacks for two years, with more than 70,000 Palestinians killed, the majority of them women and children, while most of the population had been displaced multiple times.
Israeli extremists
The ambassador also condemned Israeli settlement expansion, settler violence and restrictions in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
He criticised the “storming” of the Al Aqsa Mosque by Israeli extremists and said such actions aimed to alter the demographic and geographic character of the occupied Palestinian territory.
Asim stressed that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) remained indispensable for Palestinian refugees and called on the international community to continue political and financial support for the agency.
Reaffirming Pakistan’s long-standing position, he said the only viable path to lasting peace was the establishment of an independent, sovereign and contiguous Palestinian state with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
