The United States is circulating a draft resolution to the U.N. Security Council that would give Washington and its regional partners a broad mandate to govern Gaza and provide security for at least two years.
The draft will form the basis for negotiations between Security Council members, a U.S. official told Axios late on Monday, as the White House seeks to deploy its International Stabilization Force as early as January.
The ISF would work to demilitarize Gaza, as envisioned in the U.S. peace plan, including through “the destruction and prevention of rebuilding of military, terror, and offensive infrastructure, as well as the permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups,” it says.
The ISF would also be tasked with securing Gaza’s borders with Israel and Egypt, protecting Palestinian civilians and humanitarian corridors, and training the new Palestinian police forces that will provide security.
The draft states the ISF could take on “additional tasks as may be necessary in support of” U.S. President Donald Trump’s deal.
The Gaza “enforcement force” is to operate under a “unified command acceptable to the Board of Peace,” which Trump previously suggested could be headed by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and will work “in close consultation and cooperation” with Egypt and Israel.
The draft U.N. resolution described the Board of Peace as a “transitional governance administration” that will set the priorities and raise funding for the reconstruction of the Strip, until the temporary body believes the Palestinian Authority has “satisfactorily completed its reform program.”
According to Monday’s draft, the Board of Peace will be “supervising and supporting of a Palestinian technocratic, apolitical committee of competent Palestinians from the Strip,” which will be responsible for “day-to-day operations of Gaza’s civil service and administration.”
Humanitarian aid will only be delivered by organizations working with the Board of Peace, including the United Nations, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement. Any organization that misuses aid or diverts it to support Hamas terrorism will be banned from Gaza.
On Saturday, Jordan and Germany said that the Stabilization Force should receive a Security Council mandate to entice countries who might be willing to contribute troops to the mission.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul told the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Manama Dialogue in Bahrain that the mission to the Strip would “need a clear basis in international law.”
“We understand that this is of utmost importance to those countries who might be willing to send troops,” the German diplomat said. He noted that Berlin “also wants to see a clear mandate for this mission.”
Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, speaking at the same summit, stated that “In order for that Stabilization Force to be able to be effective in getting the job done, it has to have a Security Council mandate.
A U.N. mandate will allow other nations to “come in and so that we [can] really work out the details of the interfacing between the international force and the Palestinian force which, again, must be in charge of security of the Palestinians,” Amman’s top diplomat emphasized.
Last month, Jordanian King Abdullah II told the BBC that if the mandate of the International Stabilization Force was enforcing the peace plan and Hamas’s disarmament, “nobody will want to touch that.”
“If we’re running around Gaza on patrol with weapons, that’s not a situation that any country would like to get involved in,” he claimed.
A New York Times report also cited “diplomats and other officials from several countries who are familiar with the situation” two weeks ago as saying that the countries seen as likely participants are insisting that their troops should not be expected to fight with Hamas terrorists.
On Oct. 24, the Israel Hayom newspaper reported that troops from Azerbaijan and Indonesia could lead the mission to the Gaza Strip.
Trump, meeting with Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani aboard Air Force One during a refueling stop in Doha on Oct. 25, claimed that the Gulf nation had also signaled its willingness to contribute soldiers.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out Turkey’s participation in the Trump plan, defining it as Jerusalem’s “red line.”
Israel Hayom last month cited political sources as saying Netanyahu’s mention of “new threats” in a speech on Oct. 20 referred to the growing influence of Turkey and Qatar. Trump is said to hold Ankara and Doha in high regard, while Israel views both nations as destabilizing forces.
