Aid corridor to Gaza must be opened immediately, UNSC told

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram demanded the immediate opening of the Aid Corridor to Gaza.

Addressing the Security Council meeting, he said that Pakistan demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.

He warned that Israeli aggression could lead to a wider and more dangerous conflict.

Munir Akram lamented the ceasefire resolution could not be passed; placing heavy responsibility on those responsible for escalating the conflict.

“Continuation of the Israeli campaign in the Gaza will lead to further massive civilian casualties and could trigger a wider and more dangerous conflict,” the Pakistani envoy told the meeting addressed by a total of 86 speakers from countries and regional groups - including more than 20 ministers - that pushed the conflict to the centre of world geopolitics.

In his speech to the Security Council, Ambassador Akram conveyed Pakistan’s full support and solidarity with Palestinian brothers and sisters in these tragic and challenging times. Israel’s relentless and indiscriminate bombardment of Gaza over the last 17 days has killed more than 5,000 people and injured another 15,000, the Pakistani envoy said, “strongly and unequivocally” condemning Israel’s airstrikes and military actions in Gaza, particularly attacks on schools, residential buildings and hospitals violations of international humanitarian law.

“These Israeli attacks on civilians, civilian objects and infrastructure, blockade of water, food and fuel as well as the forced transfer of people from the occupied territory, are flagrant violations of international humanitarian law and amount to war crimes,” he said, adding, “Those responsible for these atrocity crimes must be held accountable.”

Ambassador Akram regretted the Security Council has been unable to issue a call for a ceasefire. In this regard, a heavy responsibility rests on those who contribute to the prolongation of this conflict, he said.

“Any attempt to create a false equivalence between Israel, the occupying power, and the Palestinians, the victims of this occupation, is untenable - legally, morally and politically,” he added.

Akram demanded that the Council must reject Israel’s attempts to displace the Gazans, within or outside Gaza. Under international law, he said, the struggle of people living under foreign occupation for self-determination and national liberation is legitimate and cannot be equated with terrorism. “It is the suppression of this struggle, which is illegal,” the Pakistani envoy said, pointing out that throughout history, colonial powers have portrayed national liberation movements as terrorism. “Some in this Council have offered protection to their allies who are oppressing occupied peoples in Palestine or Kashmir,” he said.

“Under the UN Charter, States have the right of self-defence against attacks on their sovereignty and territorial integrity. Yet, a State, which is in forcible occupation of a foreign territory, cannot invoke the ‘right to self-defence’ against those whose territory it has illegally occupied,” Pakistan supports Palestine as Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.