An Afghan official has denied reports in the Arabic press yesterday that Afghanistan had withdrawn its support of UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue.
An Afghan official has denied reports in the Arabic press yesterday that Afghanistan had withdrawn its support of UN resolutions on the Palestinian issue.
Rashid D. Mohammedi, Chargé d'Affaires of Afghanistan's embassy in Abu Dhabi, told Gulf News that "Afghanistan is an Islamic country and a member of the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). We will provide the Palestinian people with every diplomatic and political support to protect them, and help them attain their rights."
Reports published in local Arabic dailies yesterday quoted UN sources as saying that Afghanistan had withdrawn its support of resolutions on the Palestinian issue. "Afghanistan's UN delegation demanded on Friday that its country's name be dropped from the list of countries, which adopted the resolutions concerning UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees) and Israeli practices in the occupied Arab territories," said the reports.
The reports added that several delegations, especially Arab and Islamic, were dismayed by Afghanistan's decision. Mohammedi vehemently dismissed the report, initially filed by the Middle East News Agency (MENA), as "baseless" and reaffirmed his country's support for the Palestinian cause.
He compared the plight of the Palestinian people to that of his own brethren, saying: "The Afghan people, who have been a victim of war and terror, both regional and international, for more than two decades, feel the pain of war and terror more than others." He added: "As such, Afghans are also in a position to feel the plight of the Palestinians and hope that peace will prevail the world over." Afghanistan's chargé d'affaires said that his country would cooperate with all Muslim countries to bring about a peaceful solution to the Palestinian question.
"Afghanistan will not take any unilateral action vis-a-vis this question, which is of concern to the entire Islamic Nation," he stressed. Mohammedi pointed out that Afghanistan supported the Middle East peace initiative of Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz.
"Afghanistan will remain supportive of all UN resolutions concerning the Palestinian question, and our delegate at the UN will remain in his post as deputy chairman of the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People," he maintained. As to what triggered the publication of the fallacious report, no representative from the Afghanistan mission to the UN in New York was available for comment. Javed Hashemi, Consul at the Afghan Embassy in Abu Dhabi, said he had spoken to Ravan Farhadi, Afghanistan's permanent representative at the UN, who also insisted the report was false.
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