To address terrorism, ‘we must stamp out its root causes,’ Pakistan leader says at UN Assembly
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly today, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the Prime Minister of Pakistan underscored that any strategy to combat global terrorism must focus on addressing the issue of State sponsored terrorism, as well as resolve the root causes behind such violence
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“[Root causes] are not only poverty and ignorance, terrorism is even more an extreme response to real or perceived political and other grievances, including foreign intervention, oppression and injustice,” the Pakistani leader told world leaders.
“Unless such root causes are addressed, it will be difficult to counter the twisted narrative of terrorist groups,” he added.
In his address, Prime Minister Abbasi also drew attention to climate change as the new and existential threat to humankind’s future with its consequences felt around the world – from the United States to Nepal – and called on global leaders to collectively rally behind the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
He also noted the importance of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for all of humanity and said that initiatives such as China’s ‘Belt and Road’ offered a clear path to prosperity as well as a model of South-South cooperation “worthy of emulation.”
Also in his address, he urged an international investigation mechanism be sent to Kashmir “to verify the nature and extent of India’s human rights violations,” identify the perpetrators and hold them accountable.
Further, urging for a just, peaceful and expeditious resolution of the dispute over Kashmir, Prime Minister Abbasi called on the Security Council secure the implementation of its own resolution on the region.
“To this end, the UN Secretary-General should appoint a Special Envoy on Kashmir [whose] mandate should flow from the longstanding but unimplemented resolutions of the Security Council.”