Palestine-Pakistan talks focus on Mid-East challenges

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan

Fresh Israeli settlements and U.S. plans to move its embassy to Jerusalem dominated talks between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, local media reported.

On the second day of his three-day visit, Abbas met Sharif at the premier’s residence in Islamabad where discussions also covered conflicts in the Middle East, the ongoing Kashmir dispute and terrorism, broadcaster Geo News said.

“I have briefed Prime Minister Sharif on the latest developments related to the Middle East crisis, including Israeli settlements and the U.S. decision to shift its embassy to Jerusalem,” Abbas, who last visited Pakistan in 2013, said at a news conference.

The new U.S. administration has signaled its intention to move its mission from Tel Aviv in a move that seems to bolster Israeli claims that Jerusalem is the capital of the country while fresh settlement construction has sparked an international outcry.

Sharif noted that peace could only be restored in the Middle East after the settlement of the Palestine-Israel dispute.

“We urge the international community to play its role in just resolution of the Palestinian issue,” he said and urged the UN Security Council to implement resolutions on the withdrawal of Israeli forces from the occupied territories.

“The establishment of a viable, independent and contagious state of Palestine with pre-1969 borders and Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital is the only guarantee for sustainable peace in the region,” he added.

The leaders later visited the newly constructed Palestinian embassy in Islamabad.