PM Shehbaz deplores unprovoked Israeli massacre in West Bank

• Peace in Middle East linked to two-state solution, says PM.
• FO urges international community to halt Israel's illegal incursions.
• Envoy says Kashmiris, Palestinians be granted right to self-determination.

ISLAMABAD: Calling on the world nations to intervene before it's too late, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif Friday condemned the massacre of innocent Palestinians by Israel's occupation forces in a West Bank camp, expressing unwavering solidarity with the Arab nation.

"Pakistan stands with the people of Palestine," the premier said in a tweet on Friday.

He said the killing of 10 Palestinians including an elderly woman in the occupied West Bank called for the strongest condemnation.

He stressed sustainable peace in the Middle East, saying that it is linked to a two-state solution.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs also strongly condemned Israel's brutal attack on the city and camp of Jenin in the State of Palestine, killing several Palestinians.

The Foreign Office in a statement called upon the international community to assume its responsibility for bringing these illegal incursions and actions by the Israeli occupation forces to a halt and ensuring adequate protection of the human rights of the Palestinian people.

"Pakistan reiterates its strong and unwavering support to the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people for the full realisation of their fundamental rights including the right to self-determination," the statement said.

The FO also said, "The government and the people of Pakistan extended sincere heartfelt condolences to the families of victims and best wishes for the full and swift recovery of the injured in this brutal attack."

It said Pakistan renewed its call for a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State, with pre-1967 borders and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital, in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions.

Call for right to self-determination

Pakistan told the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday that enabling the people of Palestine and Kashmir to exercise their right of self-determination must be the 15-member body's "priority objective."

"People are at the core of the world order envisaged in the UN Charter," Ambassador Munir Akram reminded delegates, as he spoke in a debate on 'investing in people to enhance resilience against complex challenges' in the context of building and sustaining peace.

Obviously, the Pakistani envoy said, over the last seven decades, insufficient attention has been accorded to "the 'peoples' of our United Nations".

"Although most of the peoples of the 193 Member States of the UN have exercised their right to self-determination, there are several who have been prevented from exercising this right due to foreign occupation and suppression," he said, adding, "Two of the most intractable conflicts in the Council's agenda — Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir — continue to fester, and threaten international peace and security, due to suppression of the right of self-determination through foreign occupation."

According to the envoy, enabling the people of Palestine and Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their right to self-determination must be a priority objective of the Security Council.

Recognising the failure of ensuring universal respect for human rights due to double standards and political priorities of some of those who "champion" human rights, he pointed out that the United Nations did not succeed in promoting higher living conditions either.

"Our world is vastly richer than it was 70 years ago, yet inequality has increased and the division between the rich and the poor is growing," he said, underscoring that resilient development is needed to build resilient peace, and achieve the climate agenda and climate justice is required to reach a durable peace.

Ambassador Akram said that, in response to the recent floods, Pakistan, in cooperation with its partners, has formulated the resilient Recovery, Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Framework.

"This demonstration of international solidarity and cooperation will, we hope, imbue all of the efforts by the international community to ensure that all peoples are equipped to address the complex challenges of peace, development, and climate change we face today."