Pakistan condemns Houthi attacks on KSA

UNITED NATIONS:

Pakistan on Thursday strongly condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia's civilian and economic infrastructure, reaffirming its support for the kingdom's security and right to self-defence amid escalating regional tensions.

Speaking at a United Nations Security Council (UNSC) debate on the Middle East, Pakistan's acting Permanent Representative, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, said, "These attacks must cease immediately."

He reiterated Islamabad's support for efforts to secure a peaceful settlement in Yemen.

Pakistan also backed the UN special envoy's efforts to resume dialogue aimed at achieving a comprehensive and lasting peace in Yemen.

Pakistan also joined the call for halting settler violence in the West Bank and abandoning attempts to annex occupied Palestinian territory.

"In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, settlement expansion, particularly the E1 project, threatens to sever Palestinian territorial contiguity. Settler violence, demolitions, land seizures and forced displacement are entrenching annexation and dismantling the foundations of peace," Jadoon said.

"All settlement activities must cease; settler violence must be halted; and accountability ensured."

The E1 plan was greenlit by Israel last year and would further separate east Jerusalem, occupied and annexed by Israel and predominantly inhabited by Palestinians, from the West Bank.

Jadoon added that the international support for a two-state solution to the Palestinian issue must be accompanied by concrete measures to preserve Palestine's territorial integrity and viability.

"The two-state solution remains the internationally agreed framework and the indispensable foundation for just and lasting peace," he said, adding that Resolution 2803, the Comprehensive Plan to End the Gaza Conflict, and the New York Declaration provided mutually reinforcing frameworks for advancing that objective.

"Pakistan supports their full and good-faith implementation," he added. He also condemned Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and demanded respect for the historical and legal status quo of the holy sites.

Regarding Gaza, Pakistan expressed concern over continued ceasefire violations, Palestinian deaths and restrictions on humanitarian access.

Jadoon warned that the approaching winter threatened to worsen the suffering of families living amid destruction without adequate shelter or essential services.

He called for the Gaza ceasefire to be fully upheld, humanitarian assistance to be delivered unhindered and at scale, and recovery and reconstruction to proceed without delay.

Pakistan also stressed the need to support the work of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, and demanded the release of withheld Palestinian revenues to enable the Palestinian Authority to fulfil its responsibilities.

Jadoon rejected forced displacement and any attempt to fragment Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which he said constituted a single territorial unit.

He called for a "credible, time-bound and irreversible" political process to end the Israeli occupation and establish an independent, sovereign, contiguous and viable Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.