Pakistan has emphasized that establishing an independent, sovereign, and contiguous State of Palestine based on the pre-1967 borders remains the only guarantee for lasting regional peace. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, delivered this definitive stance during a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East situation on Tuesday. Furthermore, the ambassador demanded that the international community recognize Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the rightful capital of the Palestinian state.
Ahmad expressed profound concerns over the deteriorating humanitarian and political landscape across Gaza and the West Bank. Specifically, he noted that the West Bank currently experiences its largest and deadliest wave of settlement expansion alongside unprecedented settler violence. He revealed that Israeli authorities recently advanced or approved 4,750 housing units, including 34 illegal settlements in a single cabinet decision. Consequently, these systemic expansions directly threaten the geographic viability of a unified Palestinian nation.
Meanwhile, the ambassador highlighted a calculated framework by the occupying power to systematically suffocate legitimate Palestinian governance institutions. For instance, Israel continues to deliberately choke the Palestinian Authority by withholding its essential tax revenues. Ahmad stressed that these actions do not represent isolated incidents but comprise an entire ecosystem of occupation.
Therefore, Pakistan urged the Security Council to undertake a holistic assessment of the occupied territories rather than deploying piecemeal approaches. Ahmad called for the immediate implementation of Resolution 2803 and the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict. He noted that widespread hunger and disease continue to plague 90 percent of the Gazan population despite the active ceasefire. Finally, the Pakistani envoy insisted that the council must compel Israel to reverse all land annexations and completely halt forced evictions to secure a durable two-state solution.
