Monitoring Desk
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan, speaking for the OIC group at the United Nations, has condemned the visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israel’s new far-right security minister after a UN Security Council meeting at which the 15-member body’s members called for preserving the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites.
“We strongly demand that such acts have to be stopped, and they have to be stopped, forthwith”, Ambassador Aamir Khan, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told reporters at the UNSC stakeout alongside all ambassadors of Islamic countries.
The Pakistani envoy said that the group met before the Security Council meeting at the request of Palestine’s Permanent Observer to the UN Ambassador Riaz Mansour and strongly condemned Israel minister Itamar Ben-Gviri’s action.
“We have to deal with such situations with the strength and the force of international law,” Ambassador Khan added.
UN reaction over Israeli minister’s visit to Al-Aqsa Mosque compound
At the Security Council meeting, Khaled Khiari, U.N. assistant secretary-general for the Middle East, said, “As we have seen several times in the past, the situation at holy sites in Jerusalem is extremely fragile, and any tension or incident there can spill over and cause violence throughout the occupied Palestinian territory, in Israel and anywhere else in the region.”
He urged the concerned parties to refrain from escalating tensions and respect the status quo, which allows Christians and Jews to visit the site at specific times, but only Muslims are allowed to worship there.
The Council’s emergency meeting was requested by Palestine and Jordan and supported by council members United Arab Emirates, China, France, and Malta.
Israel’s new extremist government was sworn in on December 29, along with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for an unprecedented sixth term. The new national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, on Tuesday visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
His visit was the first of its kind since 2017 when an Israeli minister went to Haram al-Sharif by and Temple.
Ambassador Mansour, the Palestinian envoy, said the intentions of Ben-Gvir were clear.
In his remarks, Ambassador Mansour asked the Security Council to take action.
“Those committed to peace and international law must act now, not lament once the fire spreads beyond control.”
The Security Council members expressed their concern about the escalating tensions and a need to maintain the status quo, refrain from unilateral actions that could undermine peace prospects, and return to political negotiations that could lead to a two-state solution.
