Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar on Wednesday urged the international community to deliver justice, freedom, dignity, and a state to the long-suffering Palestinian people.

He also called for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, unrestricted humanitarian access, a halt to illegal settlements, and post-war reconstruction.

“It is time to give the Palestinian people what they have been denied for too long: justice, freedom, dignity, and a state of their own. That is the path to durable peace and stability in the Middle East,” Ishaq Dar said while chairing the UN Security Council’s “Open Debate on the Middle East, including the Palestinian Question”.

He emphasised that the path to lasting peace lies in upholding international law, ending foreign occupation, rejecting the use of force, and advancing solutions through dialogue and diplomacy.

“Gaza has become a graveyard for innocent lives as well as for international law,” Ishaq Dar stated, citing systematic attacks on hospitals, schools, refugee camps, and aid convoys. He emphasised that the unfolding hunger crisis, with a third of Gaza’s population going days without food, is a dire warning of catastrophic levels of food insecurity.

Calling the Palestinian issue a litmus test for the UN’s credibility, the deputy PM warned that failure to act decisively would embolden impunity and erode the international rules-based order.

The deputy PM urged the Security Council to pursue with unity and urgency, concrete measures including:

• Immediate, permanent, and unconditional ceasefire across Gaza and the Occupied Palestinian Territories
• Full implementation of Resolution 2735
• Unfettered humanitarian access and protection for aid workers, with urgent restoration of food and medical supply lines
• Renewed support for UNRWA, a United Nations agency supporting Palestinian refugees
• End to forced displacement and illegal settlement expansion, particularly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
• Implementation of the Arab and OIC-led reconstruction plan for Gaza
• revival of a time-bound political process to achieve a two-state solution following UN resolutions and international law

Reaffirming Pakistan’s support for a sovereign Palestinian state based on pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) as its capital, Dar welcomed recent momentum toward Palestine’s recognition and UN membership. He highlighted the upcoming International Conference on the Two-State Solution, co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France, as a key opportunity for renewed diplomatic progress.

Ishaq Dar also addressed broader regional issues, urging peaceful resolution of conflicts in Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen, and condemning recent Israeli military actions in Iran. He reiterated Pakistan’s support for multilateral diplomacy and adherence to international law as the only path to regional peace and stability.