Pakistan urges SCO to demand unconditional cease-fire in Gaza

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan (AA) – Pakistan on Tuesday urged the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to demand an "immediate and unconditional" cease-fire in Gaza, where Israeli forces have killed over 35,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women, since October of last year.

"(The) SCO must outrightly denounce this barbaric act and call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire before the flames of this conflict engulf other regions," Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said while addressing the SCO Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The two-day meeting, chaired by Murat Nurtleu, Kazakhstan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister, began earlier on Tuesday with a moment of silence to honor Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and other senior officials killed in the helicopter crash on Sunday.

"Unilateral" and "illegal" measures to change the status of disputed territories in violation of UN Security Council resolutions must be strongly condemned and opposed by all, Dar added, according to a statement from Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

"Palestine is an apt illustration. Over 35,000 Palestinian civilians, mostly women and children, have been killed and over two million have been displaced by Israel’s indiscriminate bombing in Gaza," he said.

He suggested that the only viable solution to this dispute is to implement the two-state solution, which includes establishing Palestine as a viable, secure, and contiguous state based on pre-1967 borders, with Jerusalem as its capital.

He said the surge in Islamophobia "runs counter to humanity and are universally outlawed."

"It is our collective duty to fight against fascism and historical revisionism that are leading to violent ultra-nationalism as well as to ensure that fundamental human rights and freedoms are guaranteed to all," Dar, who also holds the portfolio of deputy prime minister, said.