UNITED NATIONS - Reaffirming its solidarity with the oppressed Palestinians, Pakistan called for the implementation of relevant UN Security Council resolutions to pave the way for a sovereign State of Palestine, with Al-Quds al-Sharif as its capital. 'This is a cherished objective, for the realisation of which, the Security Council and the entire international community must devote full and sustained attention and all the resources at their disposal', Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon told the UN Security Council in an open debate on the situation in the Middle East. He called on Israel to seriously reconsider its policies and unilateral actions imperiling besieged Palestinians, and move towards a comprehensive settlement of the decades-old Middle East conflict. 'Particular responsibility lies with the occupying power, both in Palestine and Kashmir',he said. 'Israel must shun the use of force, put an end to human rights violations, discrimination, social and economic strangulation and collective punishment of the Palestinian people, immediately halt the construction of the illegal separation wall, stop its colonisation campaign of settlements and demolish outposts as promised at Annapolis and remove the blockade of the Gaza Strip', he said while reaffirming Pakistan's commitment to the Palestinian cause. 'Israel must cease the policy of forcibly establishing facts on ground, fractioning the Palestinian society, changing its demographic structure and fragmenting the Occupied Palestinian territory as all actions that jeopardise the negotiations and the prospects of a viable Palestinian State'. Deploring the fact that no progress has been made in the negotiations, largely because of Israel's policies and actions, he said, 'As we approach the end of 2008, the goal of a peace treaty, instead of being materialised, has only been re-promised'. It was therefore understandable that the general feeling among member States was that the council resolution 1850 (2008) on the Middle East, adopted Tuesday, did not do full justice to the gravity of the situation, and that it should have sent a stronger and clearer message from the Security Council, he said. Perhaps more important was the fact that international pressure had been such that the council could not afford to keep quiet at the present critical juncture, he added. Despite its shortcomings, the Ambassador said, the resolution was important in that it kept alive the hope of a peaceful settlement, building on previous agreements and obligations. The time had come for the Council to exercise its responsibility for peace and security in the Middle East, which could not be done in any better way than by the Council implementing its own resolutions and decisions. Business as usual had become unsustainable, he said. In the regional context, Ambassador Haroon said the Council and the diplomatic Quartet " United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia would engage more seriously with the Arab League, which had demonstrated a determined, constructive and dynamic approach to regional peace. He said the framework for peace was already determined in the relevant United Nations resolutions, the Madrid terms of reference, the Road Map, the Arab Peace initiative, and the understandings reached at Annapolis, which flowed from that framework. There could be no deviation from or modification of that basic mandate. It was imperative to address the root cause of the Middle East conflict, namely the Israeli occupation of Arab territories. The solution, therefore, required Israel's complete withdrawal, he added. He reiterated Pakistan's call for parallel progress on the Syria-Israel and Lebanon-Israel tracks.