Gaza in the spotlight during Pakistani PM's regional diplomacy tour
ISLAMABAD: The leaders of Pakistan, Turkiye, and Azerbaijan met on Wednesday at a trilateral summit in Lachin and called for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, saying Israel's war on the besieged enclave was the clearest example of the 'crisis of legitimacy' of the international system.
The trilateral summit was addressed by Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev.
'In these days of deepening polarization and increasing blockization, we are witnessing the international system gradually drifting into a crisis of legitimacy,' Erdogan said during his speech.
'The clearest example of the crisis of the international system is Israel's relentless cruelty and expansionist policies in Palestine.'
He said countries like Turkiye and Pakistan would continue defending the rights of the people of Gaza.
'We call on the entire world from here [trilateral summit] to increase pressure on the Israeli administration for establishing a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and for taking uninterrupted emergency humanitarian aid into Gaza,' the Turkish leader added.
Earlier, Sharif had also called for an 'immediate ceasefire' in Gaza and access to 'unimpeded humanitarian aid' for its people.
'They also expressed deep concern over the grave humanitarian situation in Gaza, urgently calling for an immediate ceasefire and unimpeded humanitarian access to the affected Palestinian population,' Sharif's office said after he met Erdogan.
Israel launched its latest air and ground war in Gaza after a cross-border attack by the Hamas group on October 7, 2023, which killed 1,200 people by Israeli tallies, with 251 hostages abducted into Gaza. The war has killed more than 53,900 Palestinians since, according to Gaza health authorities, and devastated the coastal strip.
The entire 2.1 million population of Gaza is facing prolonged food shortages, with nearly half a million people in a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness and death, according to the World Health Organization.
Food security groups say more than 93 percent of children in Gaza, about 930,000, are at risk of famine. Using satellite data, the United Nations estimated in February that 69 percent of the structures in Gaza have been damaged or destroyed.
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