Opp urges govt to 'take Iran crisis seriously'

Calls for Pakistan's exit from Trump's 'Peace Board'

ISLAMABAD:

The opposition in the Senate on Monday urged a strong and unequivocal response to Israeli-US aggression against Iran as the crisis in the Middle East escalates.

While presenting a resolution, Leader of the Opposition Raja Nasir Abbas demanded that US President Donald Trump's nomination for the Nobel Prize be withdrawn and that Pakistan disengage from the Gaza Peace Board.

The upper house met under the chairmanship of Senate Chairman Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani.

Referring to US President Donald Trump, the leader of the opposition said, "a person has come to power in the US who is creating instability across the world through the use of force".

He maintained that Iran had initiated negotiations with Washington on the advice of neighbouring countries and that talks in Geneva were progressing positively, adding that Iran's issue was not about building an atomic bomb.

Abbas vehemently condemned the Israeli-US attack on the office of the late Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, assassinating the latter.

Moreover, he warned that if Iran were weakened, Israel could reach Pakistan's borders, adding that the crisis was not merely Iran's issue but one affecting the entire Muslim Ummah.

He said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was openly speaking about establishing a "Greater Israel", while Trump's ambitions had overshadowed global institutions. He lamented that organisations such as the United Nations and the Security Council had been rendered ineffective.

He recalled that Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Khamenei had already declared that they would not develop chemical weapons. "The US and Israel cannot be trusted," he said.