UNITED NATIONS – Pakistan will fully support and co-sponsor resolution for the withdrawal of US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Pakistan’s permanent representative in the UN Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi clarified on Tuesday.
Addressing the OIC Ambassadorial Group at the United Nations, Lodhi expressed that Pakistan’s unwavering support to the Palestinian cause and to the defence of al-Quds al-Sharif was and has always been a core principle of Pakistan’s foreign policy.
Ambassador Lodhi recalled that the first-ever stand-alone General Assembly resolution on Jerusalem, GA Resolution 2253, adopted on July 4, 1967, at an Emergency Special Session of the General Assembly, was led and sponsored by Pakistan.
“The US veto (on Monday) of a resolution calling for the withdrawal of the decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel was doubling down on an already dangerously misplaced strategy, in perhaps the most sensitive geopolitical hotspot in the world,” the Pakistani envoy said.
The diplomat highlighted that while the initial decision itself was dangerous, the veto attempted to legitimise a declaration that is already null and void and lacks any legality.
The ambassador declared Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital undermines the international legal system and does not enable the Middle East to move in the direction of any revival of the peace process settlement.
She called upon the global players to speak up in order to raise the political cost for the US for taking a wrong decision.
The remarks came a two days before a special session of UN which has been convened jointly by the Arab Group and the OIC following the US veto of the UN Security Council resolution rejecting President Donald Trump’s decision to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The draft resolution, submitted to the Assembly, affirms “that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council.”
The draft resolution calls upon all countries to refrain from establishing diplomatic missions in Jerusalem.
Under a 1950 decision resolution, an emergency session can be called for the General Assembly to consider a matter “with a view to making appropriate recommendations to members for collective measures” if the Security Council fails to act.
Only 10 such sessions have been convened, and the last time the General Assembly met was in 2009 on occupied Jerusalem and Palestinian territories. Thursday’ session will be a resumption of that session.
