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ISLAMABAD: Arab Gulf countries and Muslim nations, including Pakistan, have condemned statements about a “Greater Israel” that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was reported to have made in the wake of pronouncements by his far-right allies to annex Palestinian territories.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced plans to expand settlement building in the occupied West Bank to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state.” Netanyahu said in a recent interview he felt “very much” connected to the vision of “Greater Israel,” describing it as a “historic and spiritual mission.”

The comments have triggered widespread outrage across the Arab and Muslim world in recent days and have been denounced by several nations, including ������Ƶ, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Pakistan, as well as the Palestinian Authority.

Pakistan’s foreign office said the remarks showed Israel’s intent to cement its occupation and disregard peace efforts, urging the international community to act swiftly to halt further regional destabilization and end crimes against Palestinians.

“Pakistan strongly condemns and rejects recent statements made by the Israeli Occupying power, alluding to the creation of so-called ‘Greater Israel,’ and its designs aimed at the forcible displacement of Palestinians from Gaza,” the foreign office said in a statement.

Reiterating Islamabad’s long-standing position, the foreign office reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and the establishment of an independent state of Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.

In a joint statement on Saturday, the foreign ministers of Arab and Muslim nations said the pronouncements by Netanyahu and his ministers were “a blatant and dangerous violation” of international law.

“They also constitute a direct threat to Arab national security, to the sovereignty of states, and to regional and international peace and security,” said the statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency, or SPA.

The signatories include the foreign ministers of ������Ƶ, Algeria, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Chad, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Gambia, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Qatar, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Türkiye, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. It also included the secretaries-general of the League of Arab States, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Gulf Cooperation Council.

The ministers stressed that “while their states reaffirm their respect for international legitimacy and the Charter of the United Nations, particularly Article 2, paragraph 4, which prohibits the use of force or the threat thereof, they will adopt all policies and measures that preserve peace, in a manner that serves the interests of all states and peoples in achieving security, stability, and development, away from illusions of domination and the imposition of power by force.”

The ministers pushed back against Israeli Minister Smotrich’s approval of the settlement plan in the “E1” area in the West Bank, along with his “radical, racist” statements rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state.

European nations, alarmed by the plan, have also called on the Israeli government to stop, with Germany warning that the “E1” settlement and the expansion of Maale Adumim would further restrict the mobility of the Palestinian population in the West Bank by splitting it in half and cutting the area off from East Jerusalem.

The joint statement said Israel’s plan would constitute a “blatant violation of international law and a flagrant assault on the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to realize their independent, sovereign state on the lines of 4 June 1967, with Occupied Jerusalem as its capital.”

They warned Israel’s blatant disregard for the rights of Palestinians and its neighbors and the international community as a whole “directly fuel cycles of violence and conflict and undermine prospects for achieving just and comprehensive peace in the region.”

The ministers “reiterated their rejection and condemnation of Israel’s crimes of aggression, genocide, and ethnic cleansing” and reaffirmed the need for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, and “ensuring unconditional humanitarian access to end the policy of systematic starvation that Israel is pursuing as a weapon of genocide.”

Since Oct. 2023, Israel has killed more than 60,000 Palestinians, many of them women and children, according to data from Gaza’s Health Ministry. In late July 2025, the ministry reported that at least 18,500 children and 9,800 women have been killed by Israel.

Not contented with the almost total destruction it has caused in Gaza, Israel has also continued to block international humanitarian agencies from delivering food to starving refugees.

TEHRAN: Gunmen in Iran’s volatile southeast killed a police officer and wounded another in a shootout with security forces, news agencies reported Saturday.

The clash occurred in Sistan-Baluchistan province, one of the country’s poorest regions and the scene of frequent violence between the security forces and Baloch minority rebels, extremist groups and drug traffickers.

“In an exchange of fire... between Iranshahr police and armed men, one officer was wounded and another killed,” the Fars news agency said, citing the police.

The ISNA news agency also reported the deadly gunbattle.

Sistan-Baluchistan is home to a large ethnic Baloch population, most of whom are Sunni Muslims, in contrast to Iran’s Shiite majority.

Fars said the assailants were wounded in the firefight, fled the scene and were being pursued by police.

In recent years, the Jaish Al-Adl (Arabic for ‘Army of Justice’) group has claimed multiple attacks in the area. The group operates from the borderlands between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, mainly the Sistan-Baluchestan triangle, but has been active inside Iran.

On Sunday, the group carried out an attack in Sistan-Baluchistan that killed a police officer, according to local media.

On July 26, at least six people were killed in an attack claimed by Jaish Al-Adl on a courthouse in the same province.