UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has underscored the need for settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to accomplish peace in the Middle East as well as to deal with some of the drivers of extremism and terrorism. “It is this conflict that has contributed most significantly to the anger and frustration in the Arab and Islamic world,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the General Assembly on Wednesday, while reaffirming Pakistan’s unwavering solidarity with the Palestinians. “The resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essential for peace and stability throughout the Middle East,” she added. Speaking in a debate on the question of Palestine, the Pakistani envoy said the continuing expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian lands, the blockade of Gaza, the provocations around the Al Aqsa Mosque and the continued imprisonment of Palestinians represented real and present obstacles to a two-state solution, and a willful defiance of the international consensus that the only viable option for durable peace lies in such a solution.
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