Foreign Desk Report
NEW YORK: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday evening reiterated his appeal to India and Pakistan to find a “peaceful and mutually satisfactory” solution of the Kashmir dispute through dialogue, marking one year anniversary of India’s illegal action to end the special status of the disputed state.
The UN chief said the Indo-Pakistan dialogue should be “in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations and full respect for human rights,” according to a statement issued by his Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq.
“The Secretary-General reaffirms the readiness of the United Nations to support all efforts at finding a mutually acceptable path forward,” the statement added.
On Tuesday, the secretary-general, through his spokesman, said he United Nations remained concerned over the deteriorating situation in the disputed state.
“The positions that we articulated at the time still stand and of the concerns that we had about this remain the same as we have previously stated,” the spokesman said in the response to a question at the regular news briefing in New York.
In his August 8, 2019 statement, the secretary-general also called for avoiding steps that could affect the status of Jammu and Kashmir.
