UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has once again urged the international community to support the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
Addressing the UN Security Council, Pakistan’s representative Aasim Iftikhar said Islamabad voted in favour of the Gaza peace resolution and welcomed former US President Donald Trump’s peace plan aimed at ending the conflict. He stressed that Pakistan’s priority is to stop the ongoing bloodshed of innocent Palestinians in Gaza.
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Aasim Iftikhar noted that lasting peace in the region is impossible without ensuring support and justice for the Palestinian people. He also expressed gratitude to the Security Council for passing the resolution.
Alarms Raised Over Starvation as Tool of Coercion:
Citing Gaza, Pakistan has also expressed deep concern at the fact that starvation and collective punishment have often been used as tools to advance military or political objectives, in stark violation of international humanitarian law and UN Security Council resolution 2417.
Making a national statement at the Security Council’s Open Debate on Conflict-Related Food Insecurity, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the UN, condemned the accelerating trend of hunger being deployed as an instrument of coercion, particularly noting that Gaza epitomized the cruelty of this weaponization, as “100 percent of the population faces high levels of acute food insecurity,” with entire communities now trapped in a catastrophic spiral of deprivation, “marked by starvation, destitution, and death.”
As conflicts and economic desperation converge into an unprecedented humanitarian emergency, Pakistan called on the UN Security Council to uphold the inviolability of humanitarian law, signaling that the world is witnessing a “dangerous two-way dynamic” in which violence drives hunger in open defiance of international humanitarian law and Security Council resolution 2417.
The Ambassador urged an integrated and rules-based framework anchored in four imperatives: strict adherence to the UN Charter, unconditional protection of humanitarian access and accountability for its obstruction, systemic reforms to confront the structural drivers of hunger – from poverty to agricultural inequalities and climate vulnerabilities – and a whole-of-system approach linking prevention, conflict resolution, early warning, peacebuilding, and responsible stewardship of natural resources.
UNSC for Gaza Peace Plan
The UN Security Council recently approved a resolution backing Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, securing 13 votes in favour and none against. Russia and China did not participate in the voting process.
The US representative thanked Pakistan, Egypt, Qatar, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Türkiye and Indonesia for their cooperation, stating that all parties recognised the gravity of the situation and acted accordingly.
Meanwhile, Hamas and other Palestinian resistance groups rejected the resolution supporting Trump’s Gaza plan. Hamas stated that the Security Council’s decision fails to address Palestinian rights and demands, arguing that it effectively imposes international oversight on Gaza. The group added that deploying an international force would compromise neutrality.
Hamas stressed that humanitarian aid operations in Gaza should remain under the supervision of Palestinian institutions operating through the United Nations.
