By Iftikhar Ali
UNITED NATIONS, Mar 25: As tensions escalate in the Middle East, a senior Pakistani diplomat told the UN Security Council that Pakistan is playing an active role in encouraging all parties to cease hostilities and move towards peaceful resolution of the issues in the region.
“Together with other partners, Pakistan is actively engaged in promoting this objective,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said in a debate on the situation in the Middle East held ion Tuesday.
The region, he pointed out, stands at a perilous crossroad, with risk of wider conflagration and far-reaching consequences.
“Against this already dire backdrop, further escalation must be avoided at all costs,” the Pakistani envoy said, adding, “We call on all parties to exercise maximum restraint.”
The ambassador’s statement followed Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s announcement in Islamabad that Pakistan was “ready” to host “meaningful and conclusive” talks between the US and Iran for a “comprehensive settlement” to end the war in the Middle East,
At the outset, Ramiz Alakbarov, UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, focused on UNSC resolution 2334 (2016), which, among others, demanded that Israel cease all settlement activity in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, while Nickolay Mladenov, High Representative for Gaza on President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, outlined the implementation of UNSC resolution 2803 (2025), which endorsed the United States’s “Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict” and welcomed the establishment of the Board as a “transitional governance administration” in Gaza.
In his remarks, Ambassador Asim Ahmad highlighted that the unresolved Palestinian question remains at the core of the Arab-Israeli conflict, perpetuating instability, shaping dynamics, fueling grievances, and undermining prospects for a just and lasting peace.
“The Palestinian people continue to endure illegal occupation, dispossession, systemic violence, and the denial of their inalienable rights, including the right to self-determination,” he said. Over the past two years, their suffering had reached unprecedented levels, particularly in Gaza – where more than 71,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed, and now violence had also intensified in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, where more than 1,100 Palestinians have been killed in the last couple of years.
Referring to the recent wave of Israeli settler attacks across the occupied West Bank, he said masked groups set fire to homes, burned mosques, destroyed vehicles and injured dozens of civilians.
“As the occupying power, Israel bears legal obligation under international law to protect Palestinian civilians,” he said, adding,”That obligation is being violated with impunity.”
The High-level International Conference for the Peaceful Settlement of the Question of Palestine and the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, and the General Assembly’s endorsement of the New York Declaration last year, “established a multilateral pathway” to a Palestinian State, the Pakistani envoy recalled.
Efforts by President Trump, supported by Arab and OIC countries, advanced the Peace Plan and facilitated the Sharm El-Sheikh Summit, mobilizing regional and international actors around some key and urgent priorities: ending the bloodshed, achieving a permanent ceasefire, responding to the humanitarian catastrophe, reuniting families with detainees and hostages, and reopening a credible political process towards Palestinian self-determination and statehood, Ambassador Asim Ahmad said.
The formation of the Executive Board for Gaza under the Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), and the appointment of the High Representative, are “positive steps.”
” What matters now is translating these developments into tangible, on-ground implementation,” the Pakistani envoy added.
He also highlighted the following points:
— Settlement expansion must halt immediately, and any measure aimed at altering the demographic, legal or historical character of the occupied territories, including around Al-Haram Al-Sharif, must be reversed. Israeli settlers’ violence must stop immediately;
— Resolution 2803 must be implemented, including the ceasefire and full, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access to ensure humanitarian assistance. The central and indispensable role of the Palestinian Authority in the process;
— Reconstruction should begin forthwith, with no annexation, forced displacement or fragmentation of occupied Palestinian land;
— Accountability is indispensable. Perpetrators of violence against civilians, including those involved in settler attacks, must be brought to justice, and,
— A time-bound and irreversible political process, anchored in relevant UN resolutions must lead to the establishment of a sovereign, independent and contiguous State of Palestine on the basis of pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
“Pakistan’s solidarity with the Palestinian people remains unwavering,” Ambassador Asim Ahmad told the 15-member Council.
“We stand firmly with them in their legitimate struggle against occupation, for their dignity, justice and self-determination, and for the realization of an independent Palestinian State in accordance with international legitimacy.”
