UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan told the UN Security Council that next month's international peace conference for Syria, involving President Bashar al-Assad's government and rebels seeking to overthrow him, was the only "viable chance" of ending the deadly three-year-old conflict.
"A dialogue in good faith must start, a dialogue that leads to a ceasefire, a broad agreement and peace," Ambassador Masood Khan said, after Robert Serry, the UN's special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, briefed the 15-nation body on Monday. The Geneva-II conference is set to begin on January 22.
"It is now critical to ensure that the sides finalize the list of their representatives and participate in the conference without pre-conditions," the Pakistani envoy said.
Noting that the Middle East peace process was at a delicate stage, Masood Khan said without tangible progress, strains were increasing. "This process therefore needs to be preserved and sustained. If the process falls apart, it would be very difficult to put it together again," he said, while calling for energizing the Security Council and the diplomatic Quartet, Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, to forestall the possibility of a breakdown.
The Pakistani envoy regretted Israel's announcement about advancement of the construction of another 800 settlement units in occupied East-Jerusalem.
"Military operations by the occupying forces, storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound on December 6 and new excavations under the complex are fueling tensions," he said, adding that the Council and the international community must ensure the continuance of the process.
"A one-State reality is in no one's interest," the Pakistani envoy said.
"The only viable and sustainable solution lies in the establishment of an independent, viable and contiguous State of Palestine, based on 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital."
He condemn all violations of Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity and demand vacation of all Lebanese and Syrian lands by Israel.
"Further descent of Lebanon, and indeed the region, into the Syrian vortex should be stopped," he said. "This is only possible through engagement between the Syrian parties themselves."
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