The United Nations Security Council’s vote on Monday night approving an international stabilisation force for Gaza and a “board of peace” chaired by Donald Trump is a big step forward for the US president’s peace plan. But the plan remains riddled with vulnerabilities, the greatest of which is how much it hinges on the actions and continued attention of Trump himself.
A precarious path to peace
The vote was overwhelming, with 13 security council members in favour while China and Russia abstained, and it was an impressive diplomatic achievement by the US. It also reflected a general willingness to make compromises to avoid a return to slaughter in Gaza on the scale seen over the past two years, and an acknowledgment that only the US is in a position to restrain Israel.
Resolution 2803 (2025) endorses Trump’s 20-point peace plan and approves the establishment of a board of peace to act as a transitional administration until a reformed Palestinian Authority takes control of Gaza. It authorises the board of peace to establish a temporary international stabilisation force in Gaza “to deploy under unified command acceptable to the Board of Peace”.
READ MORE
Although the force will have a security council mandate, it will not be a UN peacekeeping mission and its command and control will not report to the UN secretary general. Its closest parallel in this sense is the Kenyan-led, US-backed force deployed with UN approval to Haiti to combat gang violence.
The force for Gaza has a robust mandate, authorised “to use all necessary measures to carry out its mandate consistent with international law, including international humanitarian law”. Although the resolution does not specify its composition, Washington envisages a force that could number 20,000, with Indonesia and Azerbaijan among the countries that could contribute troops.
The force will have five key missions: securing the border; demilitarising Gaza by destroying paramilitary infrastructure and decommissioning weapons; protecting civilians, including humanitarian operations; training and supporting a Palestinian police force; and securing humanitarian corridors.
The US agreed to some last-minute changes to the text last week, the most important of which was demanded by Arab and Muslim states in return for their support. This was a clause saying that after the Palestinian Authority is reformed and Gaza redevelopment has advanced, “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”.
Israel lobbied unsuccessfully to have the reference to Palestinian statehood deleted and national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir suggested killing Palestinian Authority officials in response to it.
“If they accelerate the recognition of the Palestinian terrorist state, and the UN recognises a Palestinian state, targeted assassinations of senior Palestinian Authority officials, who are terrorists for all intents and purposes, should be ordered,” he said on Monday.
If the international stabilisation force is to carry out its mandate, it could find itself confronting Israel over the border, humanitarian aid corridors and the protection of civilians and facing off against Hamas over demilitarisation. Since the force will be under the command of the board of peace chaired by Trump, it will be for the US president to determine how far it can go in enforcing its mandate.
The plan is vague and vulnerable to sabotage by both Israel and Hamas, which has denounced it as a new form of foreign occupation of Gaza. And its success depends on the commitment and leadership of a capricious US president with a short attention span and a weakening domestic political position.
Please let me know what you think and send me your comments, thoughts or suggestions for topics you would like to see covered to denis.globalbriefing@irishtimes.com
- Denis Staunton’s Global Briefing, a guide to understanding world events, which goes out from Monday to Thursday, makes sense of what’s happening, why it matters and how it affects you. To receive this newsletter you will need to be a subscriber. You can subscribe here.
