At the UN Security Council, Pakistan Condemns Houthi Attacks on Saudi Arabia and Demands an Immediate Halt

Pakistan used a UN Security Council debate on the Middle East on Thursday to deliver one of its sharpest condemnations yet of the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, telling the council in New York that the strikes on the kingdom’s civilian and economic infrastructure had to stop at once.

Addressing the open debate, Pakistan’s acting Permanent Representative, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, said Islamabad stood firmly behind Saudi Arabia’s security, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and backed the kingdom’s right to defend itself under international law. The situation in Yemen, he warned, was deteriorating fast and worrying the whole region.

Support for the kingdom’s right to self-defence

Jadoon also threw Pakistan’s weight behind the UN special envoy’s efforts to get Yemeni parties back to the table, saying dialogue was the only route to a comprehensive and lasting peace. The remarks came against a grim backdrop: according to the Saudi-led coalition’s spokesperson, attacks on airports across the kingdom since October 1 have left 19 people dead and 364 injured.

Settler violence in the West Bank must end, too

The ambassador spent part of his speech on Palestine. Settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem — above all the E1 project — would cut Palestinian land into pieces and destroy any remaining contiguity, he said, calling for settler violence, home demolitions, land seizures and forced displacement to stop and for those responsible to be held to account. Support for a two-state solution, he added, meant little unless it came with concrete steps to keep a viable Palestinian state possible. Pakistan also repeated its call for full compliance with the Gaza ceasefire.