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Make way for Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, who has become a hero to Pakistanis online after delivering a cool but devastating response to Israeli allegations at a session of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Thursday. The emergency session, convened at the request of Pakistan and Somalia, saw all 15 members of the UNSC — including the United States — and aggrieved Qatar bash Israel for violating the Gulf state’s sovereignty.

Hoping to score a point amidst all the criticism, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon called out the double standard of celebrating certain countries acting against terrorists abroad, notably the US killing Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, while admonishing Israel for attacking Hamas leaders in Doha. Ambassador Iftikhar requested the council president to grant him a right to reply and went on to thoroughly thrash Israel for five and a half minutes.

He questioned whether his Israeli counterpart had listened attentively to what was being said in the chamber and remarked it was “ludicrous for an aggressor, an occupier [and] a serial violator of the UN charter and international law, [Israel], to abuse this chamber”. The ambassador lamented that Israel “does not heed to any advice, even from its friends, if it has any left”.

As the ambassador’s words were heard loud and clear in the council and similar statements were made by other delegates, Pakistanis on X were all praises for their representative. Several users, especially Gen Z ones, said they were proud of Pakistan’s stance and how it was delivered.

Netizens celebrated how Pakistan roasted Israel at the UNSC, with one saying we should “forget cricket and hockey, roasting should be our national sport”.

One user, talking about what just happened to the Israeli delegation, said, “there’s beating someone up, there’s dragging someone and then beating them up and then there’s dragging someone a good distance and beating them up after”.

Being the star of the moment, Ambassador Iftikhar received a generous heaping of praise for his words and was bestowed with a couple of titles by netizens.

While the UNSC agreed to censure Israel on Thursday over its attack on Qatar, progress on a ceasefire in Gaza remains elusive as at least 64,368 people have been killed since October 2023 by the Israeli Defence Forces. A resolution calling for an independent Palestinian state was adopted in the UN General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday with the US and Israel being two of 10 countries in opposition to the measure. France and the United Kingdom are also expected to recognise a Palestinian state during this session of the UNGA, which opened on September 9.