Peace is impossible without solution of the Palestinian issue, says Mushahid Hussein

Talking to Islam Times on the side-lines of a seminar on international issues in Islamabad, he stressed, “Palestine needs to be the focus of the world’s attention if we are to see peace in the region.”

He added, “the problem of Palestine is too important for Pakistan to deal with alone … Pakistan already did all it could to bring the matter on the forefront of the international agenda.”
He emphasized that Pakistan had always supported the just cause of the Palestinian people, as it understood the right and need of one people to call a land their own.  It was Pakistan which, for the first time in 1974, recognised Palestine Liberation Organisation at the Islamic Summit in Lahore, as the genuine representative of the Palestinian people.

Mushahid Hussein also welcomed talks between representatives of the Taliban and the Afghan government in Paris (France). “It is a ‘psychological and political breakthrough’ toward achieving long-lasting peace. For the first time in decades all Afghan factions sat on the negotiating table.  We welcome this process as this has set the ball rolling,” he told Islam Times.

Mushahid explained that Paris talks last week saw the emergence of a consensus throughout all Afghan factions in the acceptance that peace could only be achieved through dialogue.

 The Senator noted that in his opinion Washington had failed to achieve peace so far because of its unwillingness to include Islamabad as a regional negotiator.