- Friday, April 26, 2024
By: Chandrashekar Bhat
PAKISTAN has sought the deployment of an international protection force in Palestine territories, echoing a similar suggestion made by Turkey.
At a special meeting of the United Nations General Assembly held on Thursday (20) to discuss the situation in the Middle East, Pakistan’s foreign affairs minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi suggested that civilian observers can be sent to Palestine to “monitor a cessation of hostilities” if the Security Council cannot send a protection force there.
“If the Security Council cannot agree to send a protection force, a coalition of the willing can be formed to provide at least civilian observers to monitor a cessation of the hostilities and supervise the provision of humanitarian help to the Palestinians,” he said.
At the meeting of foreign affairs ministers attended by UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, Qureshi demanded that Israel be brought to account for its conflict with Palestine in which hundreds of people were killed and thousands others injured. He also sought protection for Israeli Arabs.
He reiterated Pakistan’s unflinching support to the people of Palestine whose voice “cannot be silenced” and “we, the representatives of the Islamic world, are here to speak with them and for them.”
