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ISLAMABAD: United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Volkan Bozkir said on Thursday nations should use their political will and strength in the assembly to resolve the decades old Palestine and Kashmir issues, adding that the “bottom line” was that Jerusalem should be the capital of Palestine and the region's borders restored to what they were before 1967 as per United Nations resolutions.
Bozkir was speaking during a trip to Islamabad that comes about a week after an emergency meeting of the UNGA on Palestine. Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was present during the special session as part of Pakistan’s intensive diplomatic onslaught to mobilize international support to end Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip. The attacks killed over 240 people in the Palestinian territory between May 10 and May 21 when a cease-fire was announced.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad along with Qureshi after their meeting at the Foreign Office, the UNGA president said the international community should struggle for “two independent viable states, Israel and Palestine,” living side by side in peace and security.
“After the ceasefire, we must use this political will and also continue using our strength in the General Assembly to force the [UN] Security Council and [UN] secretary-general [to resolve the Palestine issue],” Bozkir said.
On Kashmir, which is disputed between Pakistan and India, he said: “The Palestine issue has more political will behind it and the Kashmir issue doesn’t have the same large political will.”
The UNGA president urged Pakistan to gather support of at least a group of countries to convene a general-assembly session over Kashmir: “I think it is the duty of Pakistan to bring this to the United Nations platform more strongly.”
He said that an unsuccessful UNGA session on Kashmir would prove “counterproductive” if it was convened without homework.
Speaking on the occasion, Qureshi said there were similarities between the Palestinian situation and that in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The oppressed people in both the territories faced with the worst form of human rights violations are demanding their right to self-determination,” he said. “The Kashmir dispute is a reality, and nobody can remove it from the agenda of the UN Security Council.”
On Palestine, the foreign minister said Pakistan would expect the UN to continue to play its leadership role for the revival of the peace process in the Middle East: “The fire there can be extinguished through dialogue and a two-state solution in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.”
He said timely humanitarian assistance should also be provided to Palestinians affected by Israeli aggression.