New York: Pakistan has called for comprehensive strategy to defeat the movement of Islamic State militant group, motivated by an ideology of hate and gruesome violence.
Speaking at the 15-member Security Council, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi urged the UN Security Council to adopt a resolution outlining timelines and parameters for establishing an independent Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital, and an international mechanism a Quartet Plus steering the process.
“This body, as the prime custodian of international peace and security, must take its responsibility seriously,” the Pakistani envoy told the council, which debated the Middle East situation. Welcoming the landmark Iran nuclear deal, she said if fully and sincerely implemented it could not only contribute to nuclear non-proliferation but also regional stability, cooperation and economic growth.
“This would, as well, open the way for closer consultations and even agreement on how to address pressing regional challenges,” Maleeha said. Ambassador Lodhi’s speech followed a briefing on the developments in the Middle East by United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov.
Mladenov called for decisive action to reverse the growing perception that the two-State solution was dying a death by a thousand cuts. He urged the Israeli and the Palestinian leaders to engage in a broad political framework with the goal of achieving a final status agreement. “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is increasingly entangled in the tectonic shifts in the Middle East,” the UN envoy added.
In her remarks, the Pakistani envoy pointed out that the Islamic State, which controls large parts of Iraq and Syria, posed a spreading threat to security across the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. “A comprehensive strategy is needed military, political, economic and social to defeat this movement, motivated by an ideology of hate and gruesome violence.”
In Iraq, the Pakistani envoy said that Islamic State must be confronted and rolled back by the state, not sectarian militias. She said that success would come only if the minority population was fully assured of its safety and human rights. On the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, she said that Israel’s inflexible posture had frozen prospects for a resumed peace process, while the failure to implement various recommendations regarding Israel’s violations all but guaranteed their systematic recurrence.
“This impunity must end,” Maleeha said, stressing that full implementation of the 1 July Human Rights Council resolution, spearheaded by Pakistan, would be a step towards ending that cycle. She pointed out that the blockade of Gaza, excessive force against Palestinian civilians and illegal settlements continued, and only 28 per cent of the $3.5 billion pledged in Cairo had been disbursed.
Ambassador Lodhi looked forward to a peace plan in Syria, she hoped would be supported by the parties to the conflict, while in Yemen; she urged a return of the parties to the negotiating table. “The legitimate government of Yemen must be restored.”
