Pakistan at UN condemns Houthi attacks, demands end to Israeli settlements

Pakistan has strongly condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia’s civilian and economic infrastructure at the UN Security Council, reaffirming its support for the kingdom’s security and its right to self-defence.

“These attacks must cease immediately,” Pakistan’s Acting Permanent Representative, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, told a Security Council debate on the Middle East on Thursday, Dawn reported. He reiterated Pakistan’s support for a peaceful settlement in Yemen and for the UN special envoy’s efforts to restart dialogue.

Saudi Arabia has come under sustained attack in recent days, including a strike on Riyadh’s international airport that was the deadliest in years. Yemen’s civil war reignited in July after a UN-brokered truce collapsed.

“All settlement activities must cease”

In the same session, Pakistan called for an end to settler violence and to attempts to annex occupied Palestinian territory.

“In the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, settlement expansion, particularly the E1 project, threatens to sever Palestinian territorial contiguity. Settler violence, demolitions, land seizures and forced displacement are entrenching annexation and dismantling the foundations of peace,” Jadoon said. “All settlement activities must cease; settler violence must be halted; and accountability ensured.”

He also condemned Israeli incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque and demanded respect for the historical and legal status quo of the holy sites.

Pakistan’s demands on Palestine

• Gaza ceasefire: fully upheld, with aid delivered unhindered and at scale, and recovery and reconstruction without delay
• Winter: Jadoon warned the coming winter threatened to worsen the suffering of families living amid destruction without shelter
• UNRWA: support for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees
• Revenues: release of withheld Palestinian revenues so the Palestinian Authority can function
• Unity: no forced displacement and no attempt to split Gaza from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, which form a single territorial unit
• Statehood: a “credible, time-bound and irreversible” process to end the occupation and create a sovereign Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital

“The two-state solution remains the internationally agreed framework and the indispensable foundation for just and lasting peace,” he said.

Others in the chamber

Palestinian envoy Majed Bamya said more than 1,000 Palestinians had been killed in the occupied West Bank over three years. “How can Israeli militarism be justified while Palestinian pacifism is demanded?” he asked.

France and Britain also called for a halt to the E1 project and settlement expansion. The UN’s acting Middle East peace coordinator, Ramiz Alakbarov, citing Gaza’s Health Ministry, said about 1,500 Palestinians, including more than 320 children and 140 women, had been killed since the ceasefire. The United States defended President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan.

Why it matters

In one speech, Pakistan stood by Saudi Arabia against the Houthis and by Palestinians against occupation. “Pakistan remains committed to advancing dialogue and diplomacy in the region to help de-escalate tensions, resolve differences and promote lasting peace and stability,” Jadoon said. Read our reports on Pakistan’s commitment to Saudi security and on the settlers who torched a mosque in Mukhmas.

This article draws on reporting by Dawn and the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN.