UN Secretary General welcomes India-Pakistan ceasefire

United Nations: United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres has welcomed the ceasefire between India and Pakistan, hoping that it will be implemented, his spokesperson Farhan Haq said on Saturday.

“We welcome all efforts at de-escalation and hope that the ceasefire will be implemented”, Haq said.

He added, “We are monitoring” the situation.

Guterres had expressed deep concern over the conflict, saying, “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan”.

He repeatedly asked for de-escalating the conflict, including by holding a meeting with reporters exclusively on the subject.

Guterres spoke to External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar and Pakistan’s Prime Minister last month to convey his deep concern over the rising tensions.

While many international leaders, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, were calling both Indian and Pakistani leaders to de-escalate the conflict, Haq said on Thursday, “We encourage all efforts to de-escalate the situation”.

The Resistance Front, an offshoot of the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba, took responsibility for the massacre of 26 people in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam on April 22.

Guterres has condemned the terrorist massacre in strongest terms.

He said, “Targetting civilians is unacceptable – and those responsible must be brought to justice through transparent, credible, and lawful means”.

Guterres had also offered his good offices to find a solution to the crisis. At the request of Pakistan, the Security Council held a closed-door consultation on Monday on the situation with a briefing by Assistant Secretary-General Mohamed Khaled Khiari.

But it did not meet formally in an open session about the conflict.

Soon after the Pahalgam massacre, the Council issued a press statement expressing its unanimous view condemning the attack with Pakistan, an elected member, acceding to it.

It “condemned in the strongest terms” the Pahalgam terrorist attack and urged all countries to cooperate in bringing all those involved in the massacre to justice.

–IANS