Pandor tells UNSC That ‘Palestinians Seem To Be A Forgotten People’

Riyaz Patel

South Africa says it’s gravely concerned by the continued disregard for the Middle East Peace Process through the systematic foreclosing of final status issues, including the status of Jerusalem, and the ever expanding illegal settlements, International Relations Minister Naledi Pandor has told the UN Security Council (UNSC).

With Pretoria UNSC President for October, Pandor presided over a UNSC session on the Middle East, which focused on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – on one of the oldest items on the agenda of the Security Council – emphasizing that “peace in the Middle East will not be resolved until the question of Palestine is resolved.”

She bluntly told her fellow council members that the failure to find a resolution to the “plight of the people of Palestine and to secure their peace and freedom is a profound stain” on the stated mission of the UN as articulated in the founding charter of the