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By Iftikhar Ali
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 05 (APP): Pakistan told the UN Security Council that the entire world community is on the side of Palestinians after the United States became the only member to oppose a draft resolution seeking an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, and pledged to return to the 15-member body so that it shoulders its responsibility to restore peace in Palestine.
“We are not going to lay idle,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said while explaining his vote on the Council’s resolution that the US vetoed, with 14 other members backing it.
“The veto cast today sends an extremely dangerous message: that the lives of over two million Palestinians—besieged, starved, and relentlessly bombarded—are dispensable,” he said in a moving speech.
“It is a sad day – another low in the history of this august body, that is entrusted with primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security,” the Pakistani envoy told frustrated diplomats sitting around the Council’s iconic horseshoe-shaped table.
“We shall revert to this Council as and when required,” Ambassador Asim added.
Pakistan, he said, deeply regretted the Council’s failure to adopt the resolution tabled by the ten elected members, saying that once again, these non-permanent members have shown that they are ready to fully assume the responsibility entrusted to them by the UN’s general membership.
“We have heard, yet again, the familiar refrain: ‘this is not the right time,’ and that space must be given to ongoing negotiations,” he said, obviously referring to the US representative’s arguments in rejecting the resolution.
“But how much more space do we need? —space filled with rubble, graves, and the anguished cries of children? How much more time do we need? What amount of evidence do we need before we say enough and put a stay to this barbarity and savagery perpetrated under a brutal occupation?”, Ambassador Asim asked.
While the Council deliberated, Gaza was decimated, the Pakistani envoy stated, adding, “This is no longer a humanitarian crisis—it is a collapse of humanity, and of international law and of all that this Council is supposed to stand for”.
Ambassador Asim highlighted that over 54,000 civilians have been killed—among them 28,000 women and girls, and 18,000 children. In the last 24 hours alone, he said, nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed and more than 400 wounded. Entire neighbourhoods lie in ruin. Famine stalks the land. Disease and despair now spread more quickly than any aid can arrive, it was pointed out.
“While Gaza bleeds and this Council has been muzzled, the world has spoken,” he said, referring to the International Court of Justice’s binding provisional measures and the UN General Assembly’s numerous resolutions.
In addition, the Pakistani envoy said, “The United Nations, humanitarian organizations, global civil society, people on the streets—and increasingly, voices from within Israel itself—have recognized that what is unfolding is not merely war, but the systematic destruction of a people. War crimes. Genocide.”
“To kill innocent civilians for seeking bread and water is not only a war crime—it is a tragic indictment of a system that criminalizes survival and militarizes humanitarian aid, in flagrant violation of international humanitarian law,” he said, referring to Israeli shooting of Palestinians at US-backed aid distribution point.
“Aid dropped from the sky or delivered under armed escort is not a solution, it is a spectacle,” Ambassador Asim said, regretting that a moment where the entire world was expecting action, but yet again, the Security Council was blocked and prevented by one member from carrying out its responsibility.
In this situation, he said Pakistan reaffirms its unwavering support for the Palestinian people in their just struggle for dignity, justice, and self-determination.
Pakistan reiterates its call for an immediate, unconditional, and permanent ceasefire; full, unfettered humanitarian access and an end to the inhumane blockade of Gaza; and a comprehensive solution based on the establishment of a viable, contiguous, and sovereign Palestinian State, on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
“Together with the majority of the Council members, Pakistan stands firmly on the side of humanity, of legality, and justice”, the Pakistan envoy said.
“We urge the holdouts to do the same—before Gaza becomes not only a wound on the world’s conscience, but a permanent scar on the credibility of this Council”.
Ambassador Asim said, “We are going to continue and redouble our efforts for the cause of peace in line with our responsibility as a responsible member of this Council. We will continue to call for accountability and an end to impunity that Israel, the occupying power, continues to enjoy.”
Pointing out that the entire international community is on the side of the Palestinian people, he said, ” That support is going to be evident later this month, not this Council, but the General Assembly, where the International High-Level Conference on Palestine and the Two-State Solution is going to be held.
“And we are certain that it will be a resounding call for Palestinian rights and an irreversible path to a two-state solution and Palestinian statehood and full membership of the UN, He added.
“We shall revert to this Council as and when required, as has been said by the distinguished representative of Algeria and expect that the Council will shoulder its responsibility towards Palestine and in the interest of maintaining peace and security in the Middle East”.