Pragmatic solutions needed for Middle East conflict

Malaysia believes pragmatic solutions based on international principles and norms are needed to resolve the impasse in the Middle East.

Malaysian Permanent Representative to the United Nations Datuk Hussein Haniff said, all influential powers were required to display strong political leadership to consider mutually reinforcing the needs of the people and nations in the region.

"It goes without saying that the Security Council must play its intended role by fulfilling its mandate to enforce the council's resolutions. This is in the quest for a sustainable solution to the Question of Palestine, thus returning its credibility," he said.

Hussein said this in his speech at the Debate on the Situation in the Middle East, including the Palestine Question, at the United Nations Security Council in New York yesterday.

He said Malaysia was also deeply concerned with the humanitarian situation of the estimated four million displaced people who sought safety, shelter and other basic needs in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Turkey and Egypt.