ISLAMABAD – Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has concluded ahighly successful visit to New York.

According to the Foreign Office spokesperson, Qureshi attended a specialmeeting of the United Nations General Assembly on Palestine and heldmeetings with his counterparts from other countries of the world duringthis visit.

He also held talks with senior UN representatives on the situation inPalestine and interacted with the members of the Pakistani community andrepresentatives of the Pakistani and international media as well as the USCongress.

On arrival in Islamabad after completion of New York visit, Qureshireceived a hero’s welcome at the airport in the federal capital.

Qureshi had reached New York from Turkey on May 19 along with the foreignministers of Palestine, Turkey and Tunisia. After his arrival, he hosted adinner for the foreign ministers and representatives of the OIC countries.At the dinner, the participants discussed ways to stop Israeli aggressionagainst innocent civilians in occupied Palestinian territories, ahead ofthe UN General Assembly’s special meeting on the Gaza crisis.

On May 20, the Pakistani foreign minister addressed the special meeting ofthe UN General Assembly and expressed Pakistan’s deep anguish and strongoutrage against the Israeli provocative action at Al-Aqsa Mosque andindiscriminate and disproportionate use of force by the Israeli occupationforces against Palestinian civilians.

He urged the international community, in particular the UN SecurityCouncil, to halt the Israeli aggression and mobilise all possiblehumanitarian help, including medical supplies, to deal with the gravehumanitarian situation in Gaza and other parts of the occupied Palestinianterritories. He also urged the UN secretary general to launch ahumanitarian assistance plan to help the Palestinians.

In his address, the foreign minister called upon the UN General Assembly totake concrete steps to protect the Palestinians, especially throughdeployment of an international protection force, and hold Israelaccountable for its crimes against humanity. He called for establishment ofa viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State with pre-1967borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

On the sidelines of the UNGA, Qureshi held a meeting with the ForeignMinister of Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud. At themeeting, Qureshi thanked the leadership of Saudi Arabia for convening anemergency meeting of the OIC’s Executive Committee at Foreign Ministers’level on the Palestine issue.