Dar to reaffirm Pak support for Palestinians
Foreign Ministers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will meet in Jeddah this week for an extraordinary session to discuss the current situation in the Middle East and prepare a joint response after US President Donald Trump suggested relocating Palestinians from Gaza strip.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Ishaq Dar will travel to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to take part in the Extraordinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), which is set to take place on March 7, Jeddah.
The high-level meeting will bring together foreign ministers and senior officials from the OIC member countries to discuss joint actions in response to the deteriorating conditions in Palestine due to ongoing Israeli aggression, violations of Palestinian rights, and calls for their displacement.
"As a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause, Pakistan has consistently highlighted this issue on various international platforms," reads a statement issued here by the Foreign Office on Tuesday.
It said at the upcoming OIC-CFM session, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister would reaffirm Pakistan's steadfast support for the Palestinian cause and emphasize its principled position.
He would advocate for the full withdrawal of Israel from all occupied territories, including Jerusalem, denounce the unacceptable proposal for further displacing Palestinians, and call for restoration of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, such as their right to return to their homeland and the establishment of a viable, contiguous, and sovereign Palestinian state based on the pre-June 1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Additionally, on the sidelines of the OIC-CFM, the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister is anticipated to hold bilateral meetings with counterparts from important OIC member states.
Ahead of the OIC extraordinary meeting, Arab leaders gathered in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss the Palestinian issue and outlandish proposal by US President Donald Trump on Gaza.
Arab leaders were expected to ratify an Egyptian proposal that would involve spending $53 billion to rebuild Gaza without, as Trump has suggested, moving Palestinians out of the strip, according to a preliminary draft of the proposal.
The proposal also calls for putting a committee of technocrats and other figures unaffiliated with Hamas in charge of the territory for an initial six-month period, according to The New York Times, which has seen the Egyptian draft proposal.
The Arab summit was called in response to Mr. Trump's proposal last month to expel Palestinians from Gaza, send them to Egypt and Jordan and turn the territory into a tourism hub - an idea that much of the world has rejected as tantamount to ethnic cleansing.
Egypt, Jordan and other Arab allies of the United States have pushed back hard on the plan, saying it would destroy any remaining hope of a Palestinian state and destabilize the entire region.
Trump appeared to soften his position recently, saying that he was "not forcing" his Gaza idea on anyone. But the Arab world remains deeply concerned. Adding to those worries is the uncertainty surrounding the cease-fire in Gaza, which has paused the bloodshed there for six weeks and seen Israel and Hamas exchange Palestinian prisoners for Israeli hostages.
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