*NEW YORK: At the United Nations, Pakistan warned the internationalcommunity that divergences between major regional powers and big powerrivalries could push the Middle East into a wider conflict.*
Speaking in the Security Council debate on the Middle East and NorthAfrica, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United Nations Maleeha Lodhi said thatthe geo-strategic landscape of the Middle East is dominated by a complexinterplay of multiple and intersecting fault-lines while the competinginterests of regional and big powers have fueled greater instability andpushed the region into a vortex of turmoil and violence.
The situation, the envoy said, necessitates a comprehensive approach toeffectively address the multiple challenges – one that takes into accountthe underlying regional and historical contexts of each conflict and isconsistent with the norms of international law.
“Anything less would not work – for we know all too well that unilateralmeasures driven by narrow interests and false assumptions, have onlybrought suffering to the people of the region,” she emphasised.
Ms. Lodhi criticised external actors in the region who were trying to shapeit according to their own political preferences. “Nowhere is thisunfortunate spectacle more apparent than in Palestine. The two-statesolution is tragically being dismantled in full sight of the internationalcommunity”, she commented.
She referred to the latest report of the UN Secretary General that atteststo a familiar pattern of systematic abuse of Palestinians at the hands ofthe illegal Israeli occupation. She lamented inaction by the SecurityCouncil on the issue of Palestine and said this had only worsened thesituation in the region.*‘Killing fields of Gaza’*
She pointed out that when the Palestinians observed their ‘Great March ofReturn’, “the killing fields of Gaza were drenched in the blood of over 130innocent Palestinians. Yet the Security Council stood as a bystander to theplight of the long-suffering Palestinian people”.
The Palestinian issue, she said, is not a byproduct of conflict in theMiddle East, it is the primary source of instability in the region.
“The road to peace in the Middle East lies in a just settlement of thePalestinian issue”, she emphasised and added that the edifice of peacecannot be built without the foundation of justice.
She recalled that on 13 June, the General Assembly was called upon, toreaffirm to the Palestinians, their right to safety and protection – aright expressly recognized by several Security Council Resolutions, whichthe Security Council Council had failed to endorse on 1 June.
Lodhi termed the successful conduct of parliamentary elections in Iraq lastmonth “as a successful model of inclusive and representative politicalparticipation”.
On the conflict in Syria she emphasised the urgency for an intra-Syrianprocess of political engagement. “Much as progress may be slow, everyforward step on this path is a gain for peace in the country”, she said.
Calling for a political outcome to the grim situation in Yemen, she saidthe urgent humanitarian assistance for over 22 million people necessitatesa political resolution of the conflict there.