Pakistan calls for end to Israeli occupation

Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has called for an end to Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories at a high-level meeting convened by France, the United Kingdom (UK) and Canada. Dar delivered Pakistan's statement at the High-Level International Meeting on the Two-State Solution, titled "The Road Ahead: One Year After the New York Declaration and the Comprehensive 20-point Peace Plan", the Foreign Office (FO) said on Wednesday. The meeting was convened by France's President Emmanuel Macron, Canada's Prime Minister Mark Carney, and the UK's PM Andy Burnham. The opening statements were also delivered by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. Highlighting several initiatives that Pakistan has been a part of on the Palestine issue, Dar said: "Ultimately, all these efforts must converge on one objective: ending the occupation and realising the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination." He reiterated Islamabad's call for an independent, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine on the pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. "Pakistan will continue to play its constructive role towards this objective," the deputy premier reaffirmed. "Diplomacy must respond to the realities on the ground," he emphasised to the attendees, which included various heads of states and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (via video). Spain's President Pedro Sánchez, Qatari PM and FM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, Egypt's PM Mostafa Madbouly, Jordan's DPM and FM Ayman Safadi, Norway's PM Jonas Gahr Støre and Ireland's Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin also attended the meeting. Other participants included European Council President António Costa, Finland's President Alexander Stubb, the Netherlands ' PM Rob Jetten, Türkiye's Hakan Fidan, and High Representative for Gaza of the Board of Peace Nickolay Mladenov. Dar recalled that Pakistan had endorsed the September 2025 "New York Declaration" that backed the two-state solution, was part of the Group of Eight Arab-Islamic countries that supported the Gaza peace plan, and had voted for a UN Security Council resolution that supported that plan. The deputy premier emphasised that these processes were "complementary elements of a broader political and diplomatic pathway towards peace, and these must reinforce one another". He declared: "Our objective throughout has been clear: to end the killing and suffering of innocent Palestinians, ensure unhindered flow of humanitarian assistance and advance a credible political horizon leading to Palestinian statehood." Dar stated that violations of the ceasefire and the "catastrophic human toll in Gaza, alongside the expansion of illegal settlements and settler violence in the West Bank, remain matters of grave concern". "This machinery of occupation is eroding the territorial and political foundations on which a viable Palestinian state must be built. It must stop, and stop immediately," he asserted. Dar noted that the New York Declaration provided an "important political framework for translating international consensus into concrete action". "Its implementation, together with the Gaza Peace Plan and Resolution 2803, must ensure a permanent ceasefire, safe and sustained humanitarian assistance, immediate recovery and reconstruction, and create the conditions for a credible, irreversible and time-bound political process."