Soon after reaching New York on Wednesday for a United Nation General Assembly (UNGA) meeting on Palestine, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi held consultations with the ambassadors of Muslim countries to adopt a joint stance on the situation.
The General Assembly session will be held today.
Foreign Minister Qureshi hosted a working dinner of the Foreign Ministers of the OIC countries to discuss the worsening situation in the Occupied Palestinian territory and help formulate a unified and unequivocal response from the OIC member states ahead of Thursday’s United Nations General Assembly special meeting on the situation in Palestine.
The working dinner was attended by the foreign ministers including Turkey’s Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Riad Al-Malki of Palestine and Othman Jerandi of Tunisia. UN General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir was also present at the occasion.
Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Minister Qureshi said that the Ummah is outraged over Israel’s use of indiscriminate and disproportionate force against innocent Palestinians, resulting in the loss of numerous innocent lives, including women and children.
He reiterated Pakistan’s strongest possible condemnation of Israel’s deliberate and systematic assault against Palestinian worshippers in the Al-Aqsa Mosque during the holy month of Ramzan; violation of the sanctity of the holy sites; its policy of expansion of illegal settlements as well as forced eviction of Palestinians, and demolition of their homes with impunity.
He expressed his deep gratitude to all brotherly OIC countries, who along with Pakistan, played a proactive role in convening the special meeting of the UN General Assembly. He expressed the hope that the special meeting of the General Assembly will help send a strong message on behalf of the OIC to the international community to help end the Israeli aggression and to take concrete steps to find a solution to the Palestinian issue.
Foreign Minister Qureshi will address the special session today which has been convened as a result of combined efforts of Pakistan and other OIC countries to discuss the Israeli aggression against the Palestinians.
Also present on the occasion were Munir Akram, Permanent Representative of Pakistan at the United Nations, and Pakistan Ambassador to Washington Asad Majeed Khan.
THE SESSION: The UN General Assembly is holding an urgent meeting to discuss the situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, a spokesman for the 193-member body’s president had announced.
The spokesman said that the session on Thursday “is in response to a request from the chairmen of the OIC Group and the Arab Group at the UN made in a joint letter to the Assembly president, Volkan Bozkir of Turkey.”
The letter was signed by Niger’s Ambassador Abdou Abarry, who is chairman of the OIC Group, and Algeria’s Ambassador Sofiane Mimouni, who heads the Arab Group.
The spokesman said the plenary meeting will debate the situation in the Middle East, but so far no resolution has been submitted.
The UN General Assembly meeting follows the failure of the Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which rules Gaza.
Four Security Council meetings held so far have failed to reach a decision as the United States vetoed joint resolutions.
Moreover, US President Joe Biden seemed reluctant to condemn Israel and did not ask Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for an immediate ceasefire but said he “favours a ceasefire.”
