Pakistan reiterates mediation role at UNSC

Pakistan Thursday told an emergency meeting of the UNSC that it had stepped up its diplomatic engagement with key regional and international stakeholders to facilitate follow-up and implementation of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) by Iran and the United States that is aimed at ending the Middle East conflict.

"It has been Pakistan's consistent belief that the only way to settle the situation in the region, conclusively and comprehensively, is through diplomacy, dialogue and negotiations," Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, said at the session convened by Bahrain to address the escalating tensions in the Gulf region following Iran attacks in recent days on Bahrain and Kuwait.

Pakistan, he said, has maintained a principled position on the inadmissibility of any use of force outside the bounds of international law - the unwarranted strikes against Iran and those targeting the GCC countries, and has been condemning attacks against the GCC countries and once again expresses its full solidarity with "our brothers and sisters in Bahrain and Kuwait".

Ambassador Asim Ahmad said Pakistan has been engaged from the beginning, under the firm conviction that any further escalation would only exacerbate human suffering and carry grave consequences for regional and international peace and security.