Zardari urges int’l community’s role to stop Israeli adventurism, restore peace

Liaquat Ali

Islamabad President Asif Ali Zardari this week expressed deep concerns over the growing Israeli adventurism in the region and called for the international community’s role to take swift action to restore peace and prevent conflict from spilling over.

The president, in his remarks at the All Parties Conference, convened by the government to mark a year of Israel’s barbarism in Palestine, said that during the last year, the Israeli occupation forces had killed over 41,800 Palestinians besides destroying the infrastructure.

The moot was attended by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Chairman of Senate Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, federal cabinet members, PML-N President Nawaz Sharif, PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Jamat-e-Islami Ameer Hafiz Naeemur Rehman and leaders of other mainstream political parties.

The president said that Israel had even expanded its relentless attacks to target Lebanon, Syria and Yemen and endangered regional and global peace and security. He said that regrettably, the international community had failed to stop Israel from committing genocide against the Palestinian population, specifically in Gaza and also questioned the prevailing situation of impunity.

President Zardari said that it was crucial for the international community to take swift action to de-escalate the tension and prevent further loss of lives and conflict from spilling over to other parts of the region. He also emphasised the UN Security Council to fulfill its responsibility of establishing peace and security in Palestine and Lebanon and reiterated Pakistan’s decades-old stance for a two-state solution by establishing an independent Palestine state on the basis of pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds as its capital.

President Zardari stressed that peace in the Middle East could not be achieved without resolving the Palestine issue in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions. Calling for a total withdrawal of Israeli forces from Palestine, he also asked the UNSC to restrain Israel from violation of international laws to restore peace in the Middle East. The president reiterated Pakistan’s position of total withdrawal of Israeli forces from occupied Arab territories including Jerusalem and restoring the inalienable right of Palestinian people to self-determination.