Pakistan Says It Will Support All Efforts to Prevent Middle East Escalation

Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Pakistan Says It Will Support All Efforts to Prevent Middle East Escalation

Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Smoke and soil billow after an Israeli strike in al-Zawayda in the central Gaza Strip on August 8, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Pakistan would support all efforts to prevent war escalating in the Middle East, its foreign ministry said on Friday, as fears grow of a wider conflict involving Israel and Iran.

The Middle East is bracing for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week's killing of senior members of armed groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Tehran has blamed the death of Hamas's political leader on Iranian soil on Israel, which has not confirmed involvement.

The United States has been carrying out round-the-clock diplomacy, urging other countries through diplomatic channels to tell Iran that escalation in the Middle East is not in their interest, according to the state department.

"Pakistan will support all efforts to prevent a war in the Middle East," said Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at a media briefing. She did not comment on whether Pakistan had been in contact with Washington over the issue.

She denied reports by the Jerusalem Post newspaper that Pakistan was planning to provide Shaheen-III medium-range ballistic missiles to Iran.

Pakistan does not have diplomatic ties with Israel. It has seen a stark improvement in previously rocky ties with neighboring Iran that culminated in tit-for-tat military fire between the two nations in January. Iran's president visited in April and the nations have said they are boosting trade ties and regional cooperation.

Pakistan's deputy prime minister and foreign minister Ishaq Dar had spoken by phone with Iran's foreign minister in recent days, Baloch said, and had attended an emergency meeting convened by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Saudi Arabia this week where he condemned Israel's actions in the Gaza strip and called for a ceasefire and better access for humanitarian aid.

"He also called for preventing further escalation of violence and tensions," she added.

This week a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran was charged in the United States in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a US politician or government officials, according to the justice department.

Baloch said Pakistan had contacted US authorities and was waiting for more information. She added Pakistan could not determine any individual's nationality without full details.



Blinken: US Will Continue to Press Israel to Do More to Spare Humanitarian Sites in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
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Blinken: US Will Continue to Press Israel to Do More to Spare Humanitarian Sites in Gaza

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken boards his plane at the Chopin Airport in Warsaw on September 12, 2024. (Photo by Mark Schiefelbein / POOL / AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday the United States will continue to urge Israel to do more to spare humanitarian sites in the Gaza Strip after an Israeli airstrike on a UN school complex sheltering displaced Palestinians killed six UN staffers.

When asked at a news conference in the Polish capital about Israel’s bombing of the school complex in central Gaza the day before, Blinken told reporters that “we need to see humanitarian sites protected.”

“That’s something we continue to raise with Israel,” he said.

Wednesday's strike on the UN-supported al-Jaouni Preparatory Boys School in Nuseirat refugee camp, in central Gaza, killed at least 14 people, including two children and a woman, hospital officials said. Among those killed were six staffers from the UN Palestinian refugee agency, known as UNRWA, the main UN relief agency in Gaza.

UNRWA described the strike as the deadliest single incident for its staff members. Among those killed at the school, it said, were the manager of the shelter and others working to help the thousands of displaced people taking refuge there, including teachers.

The head of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini, said at least 220 UNRWA staffers have been killed in Gaza since Israel’s military offensive began in response to Hamas’ deadly Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Blinken blamed Hamas for continuing to hide its fighters among civilians and said the bombing “underscores the urgency" of reaching a cease-fire in the embattled territory.