ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has expressed grave concern over settler violence and the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank, warning that the developments were eroding the foundations of a viable Palestinian state.
Mr Dar delivered Pakistan’s statement at the High-Level International Meeting on the Two-State Solution, titled ‘The Road Ahead: One Year After the New York Declaration and the Comprehensive 20-point Peace Plan’, convened by France, the United Kingdom and Canada, the Foreign Office said onWednesday.The meeting was convened by French President Emmanuel Macron, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham.
The opening statements were also delivered by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Highlighting several initiatives that Pakistan has been a part of on the Palestine issue, Mr Dar said all such efforts must ultimately converge on ‘ending the occupation and realising the Palestinian people’s inalienable right to self-determination’ Mr Dar said violations of the ceasefire and the ‘catastrophic human toll in Gaza, alongside the expansion of illegal settlements and settler violence in the West Bank, remain matters of grave concern’.
‘This machinery of occupation is eroding the territorial and polit-ical foundations on which a viable Palestinian state must be built. It must stop, and stop immediately, he asserted.
He reiterated Islamabad’s call for an independent, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
‘Diplomacy must respond to the realities on the ground,’ he emphasised to the attendees.
Mr Dar recalled that Pakistan had endorsed the September 2025 ‘New York Declaration’ that backed the two-state solution, was part of the Group of Eight ArabIslamic countries that supported the Gaza peace plan, and had voted for a UN Security Council resolution that supported the plan.
Mr Dar noted that the New York Declaration provided an ‘important political framework for translating international consensus into concrete action’.Mr Dar also engaged with world leaders on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York.
The Pakistani deputy premier and Azerbaijan’s ForeignMinister Jeyhun Bayramov held a ‘productive exchange on further advancing the close and brotherly’ ties between their countries.
In a meeting with Bulgarian Foreign Minister Velislava Petrova-Chamova, Mr Dar ‘reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for diplomatic efforts to resolve regional issues’.
Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, in a separate meeting with Mr Dar, ‘appreciated Pakistan’s constructive role in promoting regional peace and stability, as well as its growing diplomatic engagement on the international stage’, the FO said. He also met his Hungarian counterpart Anita Orban.-Dawn Report