Pakistan on Tuesday welcomed UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ offer of mediation to resolve outstanding issues between the country and it’s neighbor India.
Pakistan also regretted that the Indian reaction to the offer showed Delhi was avoiding resolution of the outstanding issues.
Talking to the media persons after the concluding session of the two-day international refugee summit in Islamabad, Foreign Minister of Pakistan Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that Kashmir was an international issue and India could not enforce its illegal unilateral decisions there.
The UN chief had offered his role as a mediator on Sunday, saying that his good offices could be used for the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. However, he stressed that his good offices would only work when the offer was accepted by both sides.
Talking about Pakistan-India relations, Guterres had stressed the need for de-escalation. “Diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that guarantee peace and stability with solutions in accordance with the Charter of United Nations and resolutions of the Security Council,” he had said.
On Monday, India, however, rejected the offer. The spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs saying that the there was “no role or scope for third party mediation” and that the issue would be discussed bilaterally.
Talking to the reporters, Qureshi said that India’s reaction showed that it was trying to avoid resolution of the disputes with Pakistan but warned that New Delhi would not be able to impose its unilateral decisions on the Kashmiri people.
