Deputy PM advocates two-state solution to Palestine conflict

Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday proposed to prepare a comprehensive plan for the reconstruction of Gaza and expressed its readiness to be partner in the reconstruction of the educational institutions in Gaza.

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar forwarded this proposal, while addressing the High-Level Conference on Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza in Jordan today.

He said we must work to implement the two state solutions which has been endorsed by the Security Council resolution. He said we strongly oppose any demographic or territorial change in Gaza.

The Minister said it is time to secure the immediate admission of the State of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations, which will ensure the irreversibility of the two-State solution, the only option for durable peace and security in the Holy Land. 

Ishaq Dar said we must help them to live in freedom as a free, independent and sovereign people, with a State within the pre-1967 borders and a liberated Al-Quds Sharif as its capital. He added that as a non-permanent member of UN Security Council, Pakistan will seek to advance peace, prosperity and development in the world, particularly resolution of the long standing conflicts, especially the Palestinian issue.

The Minister highlighted that Israel's ongoing 8-month genocidal military aggression in Gaza has killed more than 37,000 Palestinians, injured over 84,500 with a disproportionate number being women and children, and displacing the entire 2.3 million population of Gaza. He said Israel has acted with complete impunity and utter disregard for international law, the UN Charter and the collective will of the international community. Starvation has been employed as a tool of warfare. Humanitarian supplies and life-saving assistance have been impeded. Civilian infrastructure, homes, schools, hospitals, aid convoys, and humanitarian shelters have been willfully targeted and destroyed.

Ishaq Dar said Pakistan strongly and unequivocally condemns Israeli atrocities. The government and the people of Pakistan stand in complete solidarity with their Palestinian brothers and sisters in these testing times. We have dispatched over eight planeloads carrying over 2000 tons of humanitarian assistance for our brethren trapped in Gaza since last October, and will continue to send these relief goods and assistance.

The Foreign Minister further said we should step up the provision of humanitarian assistance to beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza and meet their needs for food, medicines, energy and other essential supplies.

He said we must call for an embargo on all military supplies and sales to Israel and ensure the immediate withdrawal of Israeli occupation forces from Gaza.

Ishaq Dar said we should also consider the deployment of an impartial international force for the protection of Palestinian civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.