ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Ishaq Dar, said on Saturday that his country is willing to join the Gaza peace force but it is “not ready” to play any role in disarming Palestinian group Hamas.
The International Stabilization Force (ISF), which is to be composed of troops from Muslim countries, is a cornerstone of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza announced on Sept. 29 this year.
The United Nations Security Council this month approved Washington’s plan, which called for a yet-to-be-established Board of Peace as a transitional authority that Trump would head, and the ISF, which would be empowered to oversee borders, provide security and demilitarize the territory.
Pakistan voted in favor of the UNSC resolution, with its UN ambassador calling for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the area and reiterating support for Palestinians’ right to self-determination.
“So, we are definitely ready to contribute our force, the prime minister [of Pakistan] has made this principled announcement after consulting the field marshal,” Dar told reporters at a presser in Islamabad.
“There has been this new rumor that this International Stabilization Force will disarm, de-weaponize Hamas.
We are not ready for that. This is not our job, this is the job of the Palestinian law enforcement agencies.”
Pakistan was among 13 UNSC members who voted in favor of the last week’s resolution, with Russia and China abstaining from the vote. Hamas rejected the resolution that reportedly states disarmament of Palestinian groups in Gaza as one of the ISF’s objectives.
The Pakistani deputy PM said he was part of the initial discussions in the United States (US) regarding the ISF, during which Indonesia had offered its 20,000 troops, but said Jakarata has also expressed reservations on the proposal to disarm Hamas.
“As per my information, if Hamas has to be de-weaponized, disarmed, then perhaps my Indonesian counterpart has also informally expressed their reservation,” he said.
Dar said the ISF’s mandate and the terms of action have yet to be finalized and until then Pakistan cannot make a decision on contributing its troops.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Iftikhar Ahmad last week said Islamabad voted in favor of the resolution with the “primary objective in the immediate term to stop the bloodshed, to save the lives of innocent Palestinians, including women and children, to maintain the ceasefire, to ensure much-needed large-scale humanitarian relief and to secure the full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.”
He had hoped the coming weeks would provide “much-needed clarity” on several issues that the plan did not address in detail, such as a clear political path to Palestinian statehood, the role of the Palestinian Authority in governance and reconstruction and enhanced involvement of the UN, and the ISF’s mandate.
Ambassador Ahmad had reiterated Islamabad’s stance of backing Palestinian self-determination, the establishment of a sovereign, independent and contiguous Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders with Al-Quds, Al-Sharif as its capital.
