United Nations: Israel has hit out at Pakistan in the UN Security Council, stating that Islamabad cannot erase the fact that Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was given shelter and eventually killed on its soil.
At Thursday’s UNSC session on Israel’s strike against Hamas leaders in Doha, Israel’s UN Ambassador Danny Danon directly addressed Pakistan’s envoy Asim Iftikhar Ahmad. “When bin Laden was eliminated in Pakistan, no one asked, ‘Why target a terrorist on foreign soil?’ The real question was, ‘Why was a terrorist sheltered at all?’ The same question must be asked today. There was no immunity for bin Laden, and there can be no immunity for Hamas,” Danon said.
Ahmad, in response, denounced what he described as Israel’s “illegal and unprovoked aggression” against Qatar, calling it part of a “pattern of brutality” that undermines regional stability. He accused Israel of repeatedly violating international law through military actions in Gaza and cross-border strikes in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen.
The heated exchange came on the 24th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the US, orchestrated by bin Laden. Danon likened 9/11 to Israel’s October 7 attacks, calling both “days of fire and blood,” and reminded the Council of its resolution prohibiting nations from harbouring or financing terrorists.
Ahmad shot back, calling Israel “an aggressor, occupier and serial violator” of the UN Charter, and accused it of using baseless allegations to mask its own actions.
Countering again, Danon stressed Pakistan’s “double standards,” noting: “Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, and no one condemned the US. Yet when Israel targets terrorists, it faces criticism. You cannot change the fact that 9/11 happened, or that bin Laden was killed on your soil.”
Bin Laden was killed in May 2011 in a US special operation at Abbottabad in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where he had been hiding.
