Turkey urges UN to play more active role on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Turkey urged the United Nations to play more active role in resolving lingering Kashmir dispute within the framework of its resolutions. The Turkish Foreign Ministry in a statement issued on Sunday, welcomed the consultations held by the UN Security Council on Friday on the recent developments in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir.

A statement by the Turkish foreign office read: “We welcome the consultations held at the UN Security Council on Jammu and Kashmir (August 16) under the title India-Pakistan with a view to de-escalating tension in the region and upholding diplomacy. We believe that the UN should play a more active role in resolving the issue within the framework of the resolutions it adopted earlier.” “We reaffirm our hope that the issue will be resolved on the basis of international law and through dialogue between the relevant parties and we call upon the parties to exercise restraint and to refrain from unilateral steps which may increase tension,” the statement added.

On Friday the UNSC met for the first time in over five decades to discuss the critical situation in Indian occupied Kashmir urging parties to the dispute to refrain from taking any unilateral action. The UNSC met behind closed doors at the request of China and Pakistan to discuss the Indian government’s recent decision to revoke the special status of Occupied Kashmir.

The council had taken up the issue of the critical situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir after more than 50 years since it was last discussed on the platform effectively rejecting India’s stance that occupied Kashmir was an internal issue and not an internationally recognised dispute. -