Yesterdays´news – IPB – International Peace Bureau

90+ Organizations Call for a Ban on the EU-Israel Association Agreement

April 16th 2026

Dear President von der Leyen,
Dear High Representative / Vice-President Kallas,
Dear Foreign Ministers of the EU member states,

We, the undersigned humanitarian and human rights organisations and trade unions, write to you as Israeli authorities escalate their brutal repression and illegal annexation policies in Palestine, and violations of international humanitarian law (IHL) in Palestine and Lebanon to urge you to adopt the long-overdue measures proposed by President von der Leyen in September 2025, in particular the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, along with any additional steps necessary to comply with international law, including banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements and suspending all transfers and transit of arms to Israel.

Already in June 2025, the EU had found Israel in breach of Article 2 of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, which identifies respect of human rights and democratic principles as “essential elements” of the treaty. Ongoing actions by Israeli authorities in Israel, throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) and in Lebanon further compound that breach, and are causing immense suffering to millions throughout the region.

Last month, the Israeli Knesset passed a discriminatory death penalty law that significantly expands the scope and application of the death penalty, in effect targeting Palestinians only. The law is not only an egregious violation of the rights to life and fair trial of Palestinians, but also adds to the growing body of discriminatory legislation and policies implemented by Israeli authorities against Palestinians, which the International Court of Justice has found to violate Article 3 CERD, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid, in its Advisory Opinion of July 2024. Numerous UN bodies and experts, Palestinian, Israeli and international human rights organisations, and renowned legal scholars, have also documented how these policies and legislation amount to the system and crime against humanity of apartheid.

In the occupied West Bank, Israel is accelerating its illegal annexation policies and practices and is intensifying repression and serious abuses against Palestinians. Since the start of the war with Iran and Lebanon, the situation has severely worsened. Since 28 February, Israeli authorities have imposed strict movement restrictions across the OPT. In addition to previously existing check-points, dozens of new road gates have been installed by Israeli authorities in the West Bank since October 2023, most of which are now closed, severely impacting Palestinians’ access to their lands, workplaces, schools, health and emergency services. Moreover, Israeli forces and state-backed settlers have increased attacks against Palestinians, with over 200 attacks in March alone, including reports of sexual abuse. According to UN OCHA this year Israeli forces and settlers have killed 34 Palestinians, including seven children and injured 771, including 97 children. Attacks are increasingly directed towards larger Palestinian villages in area B, spreading through the West Bank. Since October 2023, state-backed settler violence has led to the displacement of 38 entire Palestinian communities. Less than three months into 2026, 1700 Palestinians have been displaced, already surpassing the total for the whole of 2025. For violent settlers, impunity remains the norm: according to Israeli NGOs, only 3% of cases lead to a full or partial conviction. In contrast, for Palestinians the conviction rate in military courts is 99%.

The increasingly lethal state-backed settler violence goes hand in hand with the acceleration of illegal settlement expansion and annexation policies through a set of measures recently adopted by Israel to displace and dispossess Palestinians in the West Bank. In August 2025, the Israeli Higher Planning Council approved the E1 plan, meant to cut through the occupied Palestinian land, with Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for atrocity crimes, saying out loud that the E1’s goal is to ensure “that there will be no Palestinian state”. In illegally annexed East Jerusalem, Israeli authorities forcibly evicted 15 Palestinian families, including 29 children, from their homes in Batn al-Hawa in Silwan last month. At least 200 other families in the neighbourhood face the risk of forced eviction to enable the unlawful takeover of their homes by settler organisations.

Meanwhile, more than 9560 Palestinians are held in Israeli detention, half of whom are held without charges or trial, either under administrative detention or under the Unlawful Combatants’ Law. Israel currently detains 351 Palestinian children, with more than half held in administrative detention without charge or trial. UN experts, Palestinian and Israeli NGOs have documented systematic torture and inhuman and degrading treatment against Palestinian prisoners, and Israeli authorities continue to deny the ICRC access to all places of detention.

In the occupied Gaza Strip, the Israel-made humanitarian catastrophe persists. Israel remains in breach of three binding orders of the International Court of Justice in the case brought by South Africa for alleged violation of the UN Genocide Convention, including to ensure unimpeded access for humanitarian assistance, and to preserve evidence. The UN Commission of Inquiry, alongside numerous human rights organisations and legal scholars, has found that Israeli authorities have committed and are continuing to commit genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

Since the start of a so-called ceasefire in October 2025, at least 736 Palestinians have been killed. Airstrikes, shelling and gunfire continues on both sides of the so-called “Yellow Line”, a temporary military demarcation that now risks evolving into an enduring territorial division. In the meantime, newly introduced registration requirements, which violate established humanitarian principles and data protection laws, allowed the Israeli authorities to further restrict the operational space for dozens of international humanitarian organisations.

Israeli policies throughout the OPT run counter the obligations laid out in the July 2024 advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which found Israel’s occupation to be unlawful and marred by serious abuses, including Israel’s breach of Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid. The Court clarified Israel should end its occupation, dismantle its settlements, allow Palestinians to return to their homes and provide them with reparations for the harm suffered.

Several experts have warned about the possible “Gazafication” of the conflict in Lebanon, where Israeli forces have displaced over 1.2 million people, around one fifth of the country’s population, in their offensive against Hezbollah, following overly broad evacuation orders which do not constitute effective guarantees of protection. The Israeli military has targeted healthcare facilities and workers, journalists, and civilian infrastructure, including bridges, which will severely impact the ability to deliver food for the people who cannot or choose not to leave their homes, and who should continue to be protected under IHL. Israeli authorities indicated the area would become a “buffer zone” in which all Lebanese homes in border villages will be destroyed and Israel will maintain control over the south of Lebanon up to the Litani river, as stated by Minister Katz.

These developments come on the heels of decades of toothless EU statements of concern and calls for a “two-state solution” that have been largely ignored by Israeli authorities, to no consequences. We welcome commitments by five member states (Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, Belgium, and The Netherlands) to ban imports of goods from illegal Israeli settlements, as required by international law and the ICJ’s advisory opinion of July 2024, and commend Spain for having already banned the imports of goods and advertisements of both goods and services from illegal Israeli settlements as of September 2025. We urge the EU to do the same, in compliance with Articles 3(5) and 21(1) TEU, and in line with its longstanding, unanimous condemnation of Israeli settlement policies as illegal and an “obstacle to a two-state solution” that the EU claims to pursue.

To date, no qualified majority has been reached in the Council to suspend the trade provisions of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, despite repeated calls from member states, Members of the European Parliament, civil society and the European public. This failure to act risks rendering the Association Agreement’s human rights clause meaningless in practice, further tarnishes the EU’s credibility and emboldens the sense of impunity fueling Israel’s growing abuses. We call on member states to support the suspension of the agreement, and urge the Council to reflect on the reputational, legal and most of all human consequences of continued inaction in the face of mounting evidence of crimes under international law committed by Israel both in Palestine and Lebanon.

The European Union and its member states should immediately suspend all transfers and transit of arms, munitions, equipment, technology, parts and dual-use goods to Israel This obligation is not discretionary but arises under both EU and international law. Article 6 and 7 of the Arms Trade Treaty and the EU Common Position on Arms Exports requires states not to transfer arms to a recipient where a clear risk exists they might be used in serious violation of IHL, as is the case for Israel. In addition, Common Article 1 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions requires that States respect and ensure respect for IHL. While several member states have already suspended arms exports, we urge all remaining states to do so without delay. In addition, the EU should take coordinated action at the institutional level to prevent the transit of arms, components, and dual-use goods through its territory to Israel, including by closing existing regulatory and enforcement gaps.

The patterns documented in this letter are the predictable consequence of decades of impunity: a failure by the international community to hold Israeli authorities accountable, and a willingness to allow political considerations to override legal obligations. What remains absent is the political will to act. The measures we urge in this letter, suspending arms transfers, banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements, and suspending the Association Agreement, are not mere political choices. They are legal obligations. The people of Palestine and Lebanon deserve action and accountability, not concerns and condolences. The time to act is long overdue.

Signatories:
International:

ACT Alliance EU
ActionAid International
Amnesty International
Avaaz
Bystanders No More
Caritas Europa
CIDSE- International family of Catholic Social Justice Organisations
Committee to Protect Journalists
Ekō
EuroMed Rights
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Global Witness
Human Rights Watch
International Media Support
International Peace Bureau
International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims
Medico International
Oxfam
Pax Christi International
SJES / Society of Jesus
SOLIDAR
United Against Inhumanity
World BEYOND War
World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT)

Member state-based:
11.11.11, Belgium
Act Church of Sweden
Action des Chrétiens pour l’Abolition de la Torture, Luxembourg
ActionAid Denmark
ACV-CSC Belgium
Adala for All, France
Afri (Action from Ireland), Ireland
Ambasada Rog, Slovenia
Association France Palestine Solidarité, France
Avocats Sans Frontières, Belgium
Belgian Academics and Artists for Palestine (BA4P/BACBI), Belgium
Broederlijk Delen, Belgium
Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies
Centre for Global Education, Ireland
Centro Pace ecologia e diritti umani, Italy
CGIL, Italy
Christian Aid Ireland
CISS, Cooperazione Internazionale Sud Sud, Italy
CNCD, Belgium
Comhlámh, Ireland
Comhlámh Justice for Palestine, Ireland
Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche-Orient, Luxembourg
Committee to Protect Journalists
COPE – Cooperazione Paesi Emergenti, Italy
COSPE, Italy
Danes je nov dan, Inštitut za druga vprašanja, Slovenia
Diakonia, Sweden
Dignity- Danish Institute against Torture, Denmark
docP – BDS Netherlands

EDUCO, Spain
Een Ander Joods Geluid, The Netherlands
Entraide et Fraternité, Belgium
European Coordination of Committees and Associations for Palestine, Belgium
European Trade Union Network for Justice in Palestine, Belgium
FGTB-ABVV, Belgium
Friends of the Earth, Spain
Gaza Group GCDG, Belgium
Glosa, Slovenia
International Committee Against House Demolitions – Germany
Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Ireland
Jewish Call for Peace, Luxembourg
Jews For Palestine Ireland
Junts Associació Catalana de Jueus i Palestins, Spain
Kairos Ireland
Law4Palestine, UK and Sweden
Ligue des droits humains (LDH), France
Nederlands Palestina Komitee, The Netherlands
Olof Palme International Center, Sweden
Palestina Solidariteit vzw, Belgium
PAX, the Netherlands
Peace Institute, Slovenia
Platform of French NGOs for Palestine, France
Portuguese Platform of Development NGOs, Portugal
Pro Peace, Germany
Reka Si, Slovenia
Sadaka-The Ireland Palestine Alliance, Ireland
Slovene Philanthropy, Slovenia
Solsoc, Belgium
Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society, Sweden
SweFOR, Sweden
The Rights Forum, The Netherlands
The Palestine Solidarity Association in Sweden
Trócaire, Ireland
Uniting Church in Sweden
Viva Salud, Belgium
Weltfriedensdienst e.V., Germany
Women for Peace, Finland
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF Finland
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF Italy
Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom WILPF Spain

EN-Joint-letter-April-FAC-FIN-1 Download

GSPP Declaration of Support for the Freedom Flotillas to Gaza

We stand in support of the Global Sumud Flotilla. While the United States and Iran fight over their rights to access the Strait of Hormuz, GAZA remains under siege. Palestinians are dying from lack of food, water and medicine.

The contradictions are obvious. The fundamental freedom of navigation and uninterrupted flow of goods cannot be upheld for the Strait of Hormuz but denied for the Occupied Palestine Territory, including Gaza. Israel’s siege is also illegal and immoral. Under international humanitarian law, civilians must have access to food, medicine, and essential aid, regardless of political or military disputes.

Yet on April 29, Israeli forces attacked 22 out of 55 Global Sumud Flotilla vessels in international waters—over 600 nautical miles from Gaza. Israeli commandos smashed and disabled boats (at least one has reportedly sunk), and abducted 175 civilians who were on board. While some detainees, a number of them bloodied and with broken bones, were left in Crete, two of the flotilla organizers–Saif Abu Kishek and Thiago Avila–remain in Israeli captivity. They are being arbitrarily detained, beaten, and subjected to baseless accusations of “terrorism”—the same smear used to criminalize Palestinian existence and global solidarity.

We strongly condemn these arrests, attacks and beatings of flotilla participants and demand release of all remaining detainees. Such actions against unarmed civilians engaged in humanitarian efforts constitute serious violations of international law and perpetrators must be held accountable.

We, the undersigned, express our full support for the Freedom Flotillas now heading toward Gaza with the aim of breaking the blockade and delivering urgently needed humanitarian assistance. These civilian-led missions represent a legitimate and nonviolent effort to uphold international humanitarian principles and respond to a catastrophic human crisis.
The continued obstruction of humanitarian assistance violates core principles enshrined in the Geneva Conventions and international human rights law.

We therefore call for:

● The immediate lifting of the blockade on Gaza and the full restoration of humanitarian access by land, sea, and air.
● The safe and unhindered passage of all humanitarian flotillas and civilian aid missions.
● The immediate release of all flotilla participants who have been detained.
● An independent investigation into allegations of abuse, with full accountability for those responsible for acts of violence or torture.
● Renewed international action to uphold international law and protect civilian populations.

The Freedom Flotillas embody a global call for justice, solidarity, and the protection of human life. We stand with those who take action—peacefully and courageously—to uphold these principles.

Global Solidarity for Peace in Palestine

GSPP Declaration of Support for Global Flotilla final Download

Tectonic Geopolitical Changes: Which Way to Peace and A Nuclear Weapon-Free World

On the Eve of the NPT Review Conference International Civil Society Demands an End to Wars & a Nuclear Weapons-Free World

At a time when the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock had been set to 85 seconds to midnight—the closest ever to global catastrophe—and when the viability of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was under increasing strain, an international coalition of nuclear disarmament and peace organizations gathered on the eve of the 11th NPT Review Conference. The moment reflected what Antonio Gramsci described as a “time of monsters,” in which the old world is dying and the new struggles to be born.

Message by UN ODA High Representative Izumi Nakamitsu On the Global Days of Action on Military Spending

Each year, the Global Days of Action on Military Spending challenge us to pause
and reflect on the choices we are making, and the world those choices are shaping.

We are living through a period marked by geopolitical tensions, deepening
mistrust, and accelerating crises that affect every region of the world. Conflicts
continue to devastate communities. Inequality is widening. Climate change is
intensifying displacement and instability, and humanitarian needs consistently
outpace our collective response. Amid these challenges, global military spending continues to rise.

This troubling trajectory is clearly reflected in the figures released today by the
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which show that world military expenditure reached $2887 billion in 2025, an increase of 2.9% in real terms from 2024, and the eleventh year of consecutive growth.

In 2025, official development assistance (ODA) totaled $174.3 billion,
representing a 23.1% decrease from 2024. Global military spending was more
than 16 times higher than total ODA. By comparison, the United Nations regular
budget for 2025 was $3.72 billion, while global military spending exceeded that
amount by 776 times.

These trends should give us pause and prompt serious reflection.

We are just four years away from the 2030 deadline for the Sustainable
Development Goals. Yet only one in five SDG targets is currently on track, while
the annual global financing gap for sustainable development has reached four
trillion dollars.

This is not simply a resource gap. It is a priority gap.

As the Secretary-General made clear in his report “The Security We Need:
Rebalancing Military Spending for a Sustainable and Peaceful Future”, rising
military expenditures are not delivering greater peace or stability. Instead, they
risk undermining the very foundations of long-term security and sustainable
development.

History has shown us, time and again, that arms races do not lead to peace. They fuel escalation, deepen distrust, and increase the risk of miscalculation. A cycle emerges in which insecurity justifies militarization, and militarization, in turn, breeds further insecurity. Meanwhile, the most pressing threats to humanity such as climate change, inequality, and food insecurity, remain chronically underfunded.

The opportunity costs are stark.

Every dollar diverted to militarization is a dollar not spent on preventing famine, building schools or strengthening climate resilience. It is a dollar that could be spent on diplomacy, conflict prevention, and advancing human security. The cost of inaction is not abstract. It is measured in lives lost, futures foregone, and trust eroded.

The question before us is not whether States have the right to invest in their
militaries to increase their security. They do. Nor is it whether real security threats exist. They certainly do. The question is: what kind of security are we building and at what cost?

True security cannot be measured solely by the size of our arsenals, but by the
well-being of our people and the health of our planet. A militarized approach
alone cannot address the root causes of conflict, instability, and violence.
The path forward is clear. We must reimagine what security means in the 21st
century—and we have the tools to do so. The Secretary-General’s report outlines practical steps: placing diplomacy first, strengthening confidence-building measures, ensuring transparency in defence budgets, and redirecting even a fraction of military spending toward sustainable development.

On these Global Days of Action on Military Spending, I urge all of us –
governments, civil society, and global citizens – to heed these warnings.

We must champion a human-centered approach to security, rooted in prevention, good governance and aligned with the principles of the UN Charter.

Let us make this moment a turning point. A moment when we choose diplomacy over escalation. Human security over excessive militarization and long-term peace over short-term calculations.

The world does not need more weapons. It needs more trust. It needs more
cooperation and more solidarity.

And above all, it needs more peace.

4.27 HR Statement (GDAMS)Download

The world spent 2.88 trillion $in the military in 2025.Take a stand with us today and protest this nonsense!

Today (Monday 27) might be the most important day of this year’s Global Days of Action on Military Spending (GDAMS), with several events taking place all across the world.

SIPRI has just published new data on military spending for the year 2025, and the figures show a new growth in military spending, reaching $2.88 trillion, an increase of 2.9% compared to last year, marking he 11th consecutive year of growth and the highest spending level ever recorded by SIPRI.Global military expenditure rose in 2025 despite a drop in spending by the United States, the world’s biggest spender. A sharp increase in European spending and continued growth in Asia and Oceania were more than enough to offset the decrease in US spending during the year. World military expenditure excluding the USA grew by 9.2 per cent in 2025. The five biggest spenders in 2025 were the United States, China, Russia, Germany and India, which together accounted for 58% of world military spending. The USA’s military spending fell by 7.5 per cent to $954 billion in 2025, while China’s spending rose by 7.4 per cent to an estimated $336 billion.

Trillions for War, Nothing for the People: Resist Militarization, Defend Sovereignty

Press Release by Stop the War Coalition Philippines on the Global Days of Action Against Military Spending (GDAMS)

Global military expenditure soared to an unprecedented $2.887 trillion in 2025, according to today’s Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Global Military Spending Report 2025. This staggering sum is funneled into weapons and warfare while the world grapples with pervasive hunger, escalating climate crises, and deepening inequality. The United States alone contributed a colossal $954 billion, accounting for a third of this global outlay. Concurrently, nations such as China, Germany, Ukraine, and Spain significantly augmented their defense budgets, fueling an alarming arms race across both Asia and Europe.

This war economy is not a distant concept; its impact resonates profoundly at home. In the Philippines, diesel prices remain stubbornly high at ₱98–₱112 per liter, rice hovers at ₱60–₱70 per kilo, and inflation registered 4.1% in March 2026. Yet, instead of substantive relief beyond temporary “ayuda” or one-time aid, the Philippine government maintains a “business-as-usual” approach, hosting Balikatan 2026—the largest war games in our history. Furthermore, the Marcos Jr. government actively facilitates U.S. military projects, including an ammunition hub in Subic (Zambales), a fuel depot in Mindanao, and the controversial Pax Silica enclave in Tarlac.

Korean A-bomb victims head to UN to tell their stories and seek accountability

Source: Solidarity for Peace and Reunification of Korea(SPARK)

【Below are the Korean, Japanese, and Chinese versions】

A delegation of victims and advocates will head to the US next week to alert the international community about the toll that America’s atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on Koreans who were forced there during Japanese rule

Han Jeong-soon, the president of the Korean Society for the Second Generation Patients Atomic Bombs, pays her respects at a memorial space featuring plaques with the names of Koreans who died while suffering the aftereffects of the US atomic bombings of Japan, located at a welfare center for Korean A-bomb victims in Hapcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. (Choi Sang-won/Hankyoreh)

No war without the US Air Base Ramstein

01.04.26 – Reiner Braun, Berlin – International Peace Bureau – English and German

Military strike against Iran: Without this U.S. air base in Germany, the attack would not have been possible.

An incomplete compilation by Reiner Braun (IPB)

Weeks before the illegal war of aggression by the USA and Israel against Iran on 28 February 2026, there were numerous indications of its preparation. There was intense activity at Ramstein Air Base. Transport aircraft of the types Boeing C-17 Globemaster III and Lockheed C-130 Hercules were landing and taking off “every minute”, according to the portal austrianwings.info; in between, civilian Boeing 747 freighters of Atlas Air on behalf of the US military.

This was the logistical choreography of a war being fought thousands of kilometres away – but hardly conceivable in this form without the Palatinate hub.

Urgent Call for Support: The Marianas in Crisis After Super Typhoon Sinlaku

A Region in Crisis

The Mariana Islands are facing a severe humanitarian emergency following the impact of Super Typhoon Sinlaku, a Category 4 storm that struck the region last April 14. As communities begin the long and difficult recovery process, the full extent of the devastation is becoming clear.

The storm swept across the entire archipelago, with Saipan and Tinian experiencing the strongest impact, facing winds of up to 170 mph. Rota and Guam were also significantly affected, with winds reaching up to 80 mph. Moving slowly, the typhoon lingered for over 50 hours, bringing record rainfall and widespread flooding.

Impact on Communities

Homes destroyed and infrastructure severely damaged
Power lines down; thousands without electricity and running water
Over 800 people in emergency shelters in Guam
More than 500 displaced in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI)
Injuries reported, with some residents still trapped

This is a moment of deep loss and uncertainty for communities across the islands.

Support Community-Led Response

Local organizations, including Common Wealth 670 in Saipan and Prutehi Guåhan, have mobilized quickly to support affected families. They have created a directory for direct aid, allowing supporters to contribute directly to those impacted.

Give direct support to families here

Direct mutual aid is critical at this time to ensure resources reach communities quickly and equitably.

Why Your Support Matters

In the aftermath of disasters, recovery efforts can become centralized or controlled in ways that may not fully meet community needs. Supporting grassroots initiatives helps strengthen local resilience and ensures aid reaches those who need it most.

Additional Ways to Help

Call for Resources

If you are aware of funding opportunities, partnerships, or rapid response resources that could support local organizations, please get in touch.

Stand in Solidarity

With limited internet and cell service, communication remains challenging. While efforts are underway to deliver essential supplies, direct financial support remains one of the most effective ways to help.

Now more than ever, solidarity and mutual aid are essential—not only for recovery, but for building long-term resilience.

Pakistan, An Extraordinary Example of Peace Leadership

By: Raza Shah Khan, IPB Board Member

At a time when the world is increasingly fractured by geopolitical rivalries and hardened national positions, the recent tensions between the United States and Iran served as a stark reminder of how quickly crises can spiral into catastrophic conflict. In such moments, the true cost of war is not measured in strategic gains or losses, but in human suffering — borne disproportionately by ordinary citizens.

For a region already burdened by instability, a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran would have had far-reaching consequences. Beyond the immediate theatre of conflict, the ripple effects would likely have included economic disruption, particularly through energy markets, and increased insecurity across the globe. Yet, the gravest impact would have been humanitarian. Civilians — as seen repeatedly in conflicts across Iraq, Syria, and Yemen — inevitably bear the brunt of war: displacement, loss of livelihoods, and the erosion of already fragile public services.

In this fraught context, Pakistan’s diplomatic engagement to facilitate dialogue between Tehran and Washington reflects the kind of leadership that is too often missing in today’s international system. At a time when major powers remain entrenched in positions of confrontation, the willingness to prioritize de-escalation and dialogue is both necessary and commendable.

Maintaining working relationships with both Iran and the United States, Islamabad is uniquely positioned to act as a bridge in moments of crisis. Its engagement underscores an important principle: that even in deeply polarized environments, channels for communication must remain open. Dialogue, however difficult, is always preferable to escalation.

The significance of such efforts extends beyond a single crisis. In an interconnected world, conflicts are no longer contained within borders. Economic shocks reverberate globally, humanitarian crises strain international systems, and insecurity spreads across regions. The consequences of war are shared — but so too must be the responsibility to prevent it.

What is urgently needed today is a renewed commitment to what may be termed “peace leadership.” This requires states to move beyond reactive diplomacy and invest in sustained efforts to build trust, reduce tensions, and prevent conflicts before they erupt. It calls for political courage — the willingness to engage adversaries, absorb criticism, and prioritize long-term stability over short-term gains.

Pakistan’s role in the recent crisis offers a reminder that such leadership is both possible and necessary. It demonstrates that diplomacy, when pursued with intent and clarity, can serve as a powerful tool for stability in an otherwise volatile world.

The lessons are clear. The world cannot afford another protracted conflict in an already fragile region. Nor can it continue to rely solely on power politics to resolve disputes that demand dialogue and compromise.

Peace is not self-sustaining. It requires deliberate effort, sustained engagement, and leadership that is willing to place humanity above hostility.

In an age defined by division, the real test of leadership is not the ability to wage war, but the resolve to prevent it. The choice before the international community is stark: continue down a path of confrontation, or invest in the hard, necessary work of peace.

The cost of getting this wrong will not be measured in policy failures, but in human lives. And that is a price the world can no longer afford to pay.

Disclaimer: This article was originally written by the author(s). The views expressed do not necessarily represent the official position of the International Peace Bureau.