NEW YORK: The long-standing Kashmir and Palestine issues have put thecredibility of the United Nations at stake, says Pakistan’s PermanentRepresentative to the UN Maleeha Lodhi.

Speaking in a debate on the Middle East, she said people’s faith in theworld body was withering away owing to non-implementation of UN SecurityCouncil’s resolutions on key issues.

Ms Lodhi renewed Pakistan’s pledge to keep supporting Kashmiris andPalestinians in their struggle for rights. International community mustlend a helping hand to Palestinian refugees, she demanded.

The ambassador stressed that peace in the Middle East was linked to justand fair resolutions of the issues and lamented efforts to restore peace inthe region were fading away.

Earlier, she had told a UN committee that there can be no lasting peace inthe Middle East without a just solution to the Palestinian issue.

“A viable, independent and contiguous State of Palestine on the basis ofthe internationally agreed parameters, the pre-1967 borders and Al-QudsAl-Sharif as its capital, is the only sustainable guarantee for enduringpeace in the Middle East,” the ambassador had said.

She deplored Israel’s escalation of settlement building in the occupiedterritories as a blow to the peace process.