Pakistan can’t change the fact that Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden was sheltered and killed on its soil, Israel has stated, because it lashed out at Islamabad within the UN Security Council for its “double standards”.
“When bin Laden was eliminated in Pakistan,” Israel’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Danny Danon stated, pointing his hand in direction of Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, “the question asked was not ‘why target a terrorist on foreign soil’?”
“No one asked that question. The question was, ‘Why was a terrorist given shelter at all?’ The same question must be asked today. There was no immunity for bin Laden, and there can be no immunity for Hamas,” Mr. Danon stated.
The sharp trade between the envoys of Israel and Pakistan got here on Thursday at a Security Council assembly held to debate the Israeli assault on Hamas leaders within the Qatari capital of Doha.
In his remarks, Mr. Ahmad strongly condemned what he known as Israel’s “illegal and unprovoked aggression” in opposition to Qatar, terming it a part of a “broader and consistent pattern of aggression” that undermines regional peace.
The Pakistani envoy accused Israel of repeatedly violating worldwide legislation by way of “brutal” army actions in Gaza, and repeated cross-border strikes in Syria, Lebanon, Iran and Yemen.
The UNSC assembly came about on the twenty fourth anniversary of the 9/11 terror assaults in New York City, orchestrated by bin Laden.
Mr. Danon stated “that tragic day (9/11), like October 7 for Israel, was a day of fire and blood”.
He recalled that within the days following the 9/11 assaults, the Security Council had adopted a decision, which acknowledged that no nation could harbour terrorists, nor fund them and provides them haven.
“Any government that does so breaks this Council’s binding obligations. That principle was clear then; it must be upheld today,” the Israeli envoy stated.
Mr. Ahmad took the ground once more to answer Mr. Danon’s assertion.
“It is unacceptable, certainly ludicrous for an aggressor, an occupier, a serial violator of the UN Charter and worldwide legislation, that is Israel, to abuse this chamber and disrespect the sanctity of this Council. This will not be the primary time. And by pointing fingers at others, baseless assertions primarily aimed at masking its personal unlawful actions and violations of worldwide legislation,” he stated.
In a powerful retort, Mr. Danon stated if the Pakistani envoy wished to learn the assertion, he may have performed it at the start of the session.
“The fact is that Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, and no one condemned the US. And when other countries in this Council attack terrorists, no one condemns them. And that is the issue of double standards. When you apply different standards to Israel than the standards you apply to yourselves, that is the problem of this institution.
“…you cannot change the fact that 9/11 happened… You cannot change the fact that Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan, and he was killed on your territory. But I would ask you, when you criticise us, and I’m sure it will continue in the future, think about the issue of double standards, which standards you apply to your country and which standards you apply to Israel,” Mr. Danon stated.
U.S. forces eradicated bin Laden in a particular operation carried out in May 2011 at Abbottabad in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the place the Al-Qaeda chief had been hiding.
