UNSC to hold closed consultations on Indo-Pak situation on Monday

The UN Security Council will hold closed consultations Monday on the situation between India and Pakistan after Islamabad sought an emergency meeting on the issue Pakistan currently sits as a nonpermanent member of the powerful 15nation Security Council which is being presided over by Greece for the month of MayIslamabad requested closed consultations on the tensions between the two countries and the Greek Presidency has scheduled the meeting for May 5 in the afternoon Apart from the five vetowielding permanent members China France Russia UK and the US the 10 nonpermanent members in the Council are Algeria Denmark Greece Guyana Pakistan Panama South Korea Sierra Leone Slovenia and SomaliaAmid rising tensions between the nucleararmed South Asian neighbors following the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack Permanent Representative of Greece to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of May Ambassador Evangelos Sekeris had last week said that if a request comes for a meeting to discuss the situation between India and Pakistan then I think this meeting should take place because as we said maybe its also an opportunity to have views expressed and this might help to diffuse a bit of tensionWe are in close contactbut this is something which might happen I would say sooner rather than later We will see we are preparing Sekeris had said In response to a question by PTI on India being a victim of crossborder terrorism emanating from Pakistan which now sits in the Council as a nonpermanent member and need to commit terrorism Sekeris said Its an issue which is very pertinentAs I said before as a position of principle we strongly condemn any act of terrorism and this is what we did on the heinous terrorist attack that took place in Pahalgam in which innocent civilians died Sekeris said Sekeris noted that we express our condolences to the government of India Nepal and the families of victims This is a position of principle We condemn terrorism in all its forms everywhere it is happening On the other hand we are concerned about this tension which is mounting in the region Two very big countries Of course India is far more bigger than PakistanIn the weeks following the Pahalgam terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir in which 26 civilians were killed External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar spoke with all Council members with the exception of China and Pakistan In his calls Jaishankar underlined that its perpetrators backers and planners must be brought to justice Jaishankar had a good conversation with Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and had discussed the Pahalgam terrorist attack India had welcomed Greeces firm opposition to crossborder terrorism and our Strategic Partnership reflects the depth of our ties Jaishankar had saidHe also spoke with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov US Secretary of State Marco Rubio UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy French Foreign Minster JeanNoeumll Barrot South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Taeyul Danish Foreign Minister Lars Loslashkke Rasmussen Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of the Republic of Sierra Leone Timothy Musa Kabba Algerias Minister of Foreign Affairs Ahmed Attaf Foreign Minister Hugh Hilton Todd of Guyana Slovenia Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon Foreign Minister Abdisalam Abdi Ali of Somalia and Panama Foreign Minister Javier MartiacutenezAcha VaacutesquezLast Friday Pakistans Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad had said at a press conference in the UN that his country has the right to convene a meeting when we feel appropriate We see that all of this that is happening is in the context in the backdrop of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir Ahmad had saidHere it is evident that there was an incident but now what has evolved in terms of the situation which is a real threat to regional and international peace and security and we believe that the Security Council in fact has the mandate and it would be very legitimate for any member of the Council including Pakistan to request a meeting a discussion of the Security Council to consider this very serious situation that has evolvedWe have discussed that with the Council members We have discussed that with the in fact the previous last months presidency and this months presidency We are observing the situation very closely and we have the right to convene a meeting when we feel appropriate Ahmad had said The Pakistani envoy had last week met Guterres and briefed him about the security situation in the regionThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason 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