ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Chairman and former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari issued a stark warning during a National Assembly session, cautioning that the escalating Iran-Israel conflict has the potential to ignite a global war.
Raising alarm over Tel Aviv's expansionist actions, Bilawal stated: “First, they came for the Palestinians, but the world did not speak out because they weren't Palestinian. Then they came for the Lebanese, but we did not speak out because we were not Lebanese. And then they came for the Yemenis, but we did not speak out because we're not from Yemen. Now, they've come for Iran. If we do not speak out, there will be no one left when they come for us.”
Quoting Pastor Martin Niemöller’s famous anti-fascist poem First They Came, Bilawal stressed the need for collective international resistance against Israeli aggression. He condemned Israel’s widening military campaign in the Middle East, which has been exacerbated by U.S. strikes on Tehran's nuclear facilities.
Bilawal's comments come amid rising global concern over a spiraling conflict in the region. His party has taken a leading diplomatic stance, dispatching high-level delegations to the U.S. and Europe to rally international support.
The backdrop to these remarks includes last month’s brief war between India and Pakistan, following Indian airstrikes in Pahalgam, IIOJK. Pakistan’s retaliatory Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos led to the downing of six Indian Air Force jets. The crisis ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on May 10.
