Dar to visit Jordan to participate in high-level conference on Gaza
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar will depart on Monday for Jordan to participate in the high-level conference on the current situation in Gaza.
The conference, ‘Call for Action: Urgent Humanitarian Response for Gaza’, has been jointly organised by King Abdullah-II of Jordan, President of Egypt Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, and Secretary-General United Nations Antonio Guterres, as per Radio Pakistan.
The conference aims to identify and develop a collective response to the dire humanitarian situation in Gaza, it was further reported.
During his visit, Dar will hold bilateral meetings with his counterparts from the participating countries.
More than 37,000 Palestinians, including children and women, have been killed in Israeli aggression in Gaza since October 7.
On Saturday, at least 274 Palestinians were killed and 698 wounded in Israeli strikes on the al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, the health ministry said.
Meanwhile, the United States stepped up pressure on Monday for a Gaza ceasefire with a call for a UN Security Council vote on a truce as it redeployed Washington’s top diplomat to the region scarred by eight months of war.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s regional tour was preceded by further bombardment of Gaza by Israeli forces, with witnesses reporting overnight strikes in the centre of the strip and helicopter gunfire on ravaged Gaza City.
Earlier, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif felicitated on Monday Narendra Modi who took oath as the PM of India after an unexpectedly close election that forced his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form a coalition government.
“Felicitations to Narendra Modi on taking oath as the Prime Minister of India,” the PM wrote on X, a brief note that came nearly a week after results.
Modi was sworn in on Sunday for a third term after BJP won 293 seats in the general election held over the last seven weeks.
Modi, who is only the second person after India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to hold office for three consecutive terms, readied Monday to unveil his coalition government after a surprise election setback lost his Hindunationalist party an overall majority.
The 71 members of his government took the oath of office after Modi on Sunday, with 11 posts going to coalition allies who extracted them in exchange for their support – including five in the top 30 cabinet posts.
There are no Muslim lawmakers among his third-term lineup, unlike his past two governments, both formed after his party won a majority.
Modi’s decade as premier has seen him cultivate an image as an aggressive champion of the country’s majority Hindu faith, worrying minorities including the country’s 200-millionplus Muslim community.