Daily Times

Pakistan and Turkey have strongly condemned the Israeli aggression against unarmed Palestinians and their forced eviction from their homes.

This came at a meeting between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara on Tuesday. The two foreign ministers also decided to jointly raise their voices against the Israeli persecution of Palestinians.

Qureshi said, “We will not leave alone our Palestinian brothers.” He said the entire Muslim community is in a state of pain due to the Israeli bombardment and the violence against Palestinians during Ramazan-ul-Mubarak and Eid-ul-Fitr. The minister said, “On the direction of Prime Minister Imran Khan, we are observing a day of solidarity with our Palestinian brothers on Friday.”

The Turkish foreign minister appreciated Qureshi’s address at the OIC’s Executive Committee at the level of Foreign Ministers and Pakistan’s continuous and robust support to the oppressed Palestinians.

He also hosted a luncheon in the honour of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Earlier in s statement on Tuesday, Qureshi said that contacts are being established with different countries to get stopped the Israeli persecution of Palestinians. He said the Muslims residing in European countries must also play their role in this regard. Qureshi said the bombardment in Palestine has resulted in power outage and affected the supplies of essential commodities. He said it will be lamentable if the international community remained silent on the Palestinian situation.

The foreign minister said Israel is further complicating the matter and its bombardment is making it impossible for the Palestinians to access the healthcare facilities. Qureshi said hurdles are being created so that the Palestinian foreign minister could not attend the UN General Assembly session. He said, “We will wait for the Palestinian foreign minister and want him to accompany us for the session.”

Earlier during his visit to Pakistan’s Embassy in Ankara on Tuesday, Qureshi said that according to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s vision, ensuring the provision of best consular services at embassies is one of our top priorities. Addressing the staff members of the embassy, he said the well-being of overseas Pakistanis and resolving their problems on priority basis is the government’s foremost responsibility. He said, “In the current era, we are facing many challenges on the diplomatic front, therefore, we need to work harder and more diligently to address these challenges. We need to focus on economic diplomacy for the economic stability of Pakistan and promotion of investment in the country.”