ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said on Thursday it was “deeply concerned” about escalating violence in Syria, where a coalition of armed opposition forces last week launched their largest offensive against the government in years, jolting dormant frontlines with implications for the Middle East region and beyond.
The fighters swept through villages outside Aleppo last week and now say they control much of the city, meeting little resistance as the Syrian military quickly withdrew. It is the first time control of the city has shifted since 2016, when government forces, backed by Russia and Iran, defeated opposition fighters who had controlled Aleppo’s eastern districts.
There are reports of civilian casualties, displacements of tens of thousands of people, damage to civilian infrastructure, and interruption in essential services and humanitarian aid as the civil war rages on.
“Pakistan is deeply concerned at the latest developments in Syria,” Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the spokesperson for the foreign office, told reporters at a weekly press briefing. “We believe that the ongoing situation will further destabilize the region and embolden terrorist organizations.”
Baloch said it was critical to promote peace in Syria for regional stability.
“We call for international efforts to de-escalate the situation and for upholding unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria,” she added.
The Syrian government has vowed to fight back against the assault by opposition fighters. Russia, which deployed its air force to Syria in 2015 to help President Bashar Assad, is conducting airstrikes in support of the army.
It marks the most serious escalation of the conflict in years, adding to a toll which stands at hundreds of thousands dead since 2011, when the war mushroomed out of an Arab Spring uprising against Assad’s rule. Since then, more than half the pre-war population of 23 million have been forced from their homes, with millions fleeing abroad as refugees.
Separately, Pakistan has welcomed the UN General Assembly’s resolution passed on Wednesday calling for Israel’s withdrawal from Palestinian territories and the creation of an independent Palestinian state.
“We welcome yesterday’s resolution of the UN General Assembly calling on Israeli occupation authorities to withdraw from Palestinian territories and for the creation of a Palestinian state,” Baloch said at the media briefing.
“The genocide in Gaza must end.”
Pakistan has consistently called for establishing an independent Palestinian state with Al Quds Al Sharif as its capital. Islamabad has also demanded an unconditional and immediate ceasefire in Palestine, where Israel has killed over 43,000 people since October 2023 when it launched air and ground strikes in Gaza in response to an assault by Hamas fighters.
