Pakistan calls on UN to take steps to stop ‘massacres’ in Gaza

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, called on the UN to take concrete steps to stop the massacres committed by Israel in the Gaza Strip.

In a speech during a meeting on Palestine organised by the UN Security Council in New York, Akram called on the international body to take “concrete steps to halt the slaughter of innocent and bring peace to Palestine, to Israel, and to the Middle East.”

“We welcome the efforts deployed to revive the prospects for a two-state solution. It is the only viable option for realising a sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinians and between Israel and the Arab and Islamic world.”

He expressed his hope that a UN Security Council resolution would be adopted to completely stop Israeli attacks, provide humanitarian aid to the residents of besieged Gaza, and provide international protection for the Palestinian people.

“If the Israeli leadership persists in refusing peace,” he said, “the Security Council, the General Assembly – and indeed all UN Member States – must take steps to hold it accountable.”

He also called for Palestine to be granted full membership of the UN. “To ensure the inevitability of the two-state solution, it is also time to admit Palestine as a full member of the United Nations,” he stressed. Palestine currently has observer status at the UN.

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