LAHORE: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam Pakistan (JUI-F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has sharply criticised Washington’s approach to the Middle East, saying the United States should avoid what he called “extremist or forceful politics.”
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, the JUI-F leader argued that Hamas remains a key stakeholder in the Palestine question and that excluding it from negotiations is “unrealistic.”
Fazl said the Palestinian issue had become the foremost global concern, recalling that Pakistan’s founder once described the creation of Israel as “a dagger in the back of the Arab world.” He reiterated his party’s position that Israel was an “illegitimate state.”
He also took aim at US President Donald Trump, accusing him of “imposing decisions” on the region, which he described as neither ethical nor political. “No solution can be forced on Palestinians,” Fazl stressed, adding that any two-state formula required mutual recognition, which “simply does not exist.”
Drawing comparisons with past international interventions, Fazl questioned why Saddam Hussein was executed over alleged war crimes while “over 100,000 Palestinians have perished from hunger, disease and lack of medicine,” yet their plight remains unaddressed.
He further described recent remarks at the United Nations recalling Saddam’s conviction by the International Court of Justice as “regrettable,” given the silence over the ongoing suffering of Palestinians.
