US taking all-or-nothing approach on its Gaza plan, warns UN truce will collapse otherwise – NYT

The US is urging the UN Security Council to back a version of Trump’s peace plan for the Gaza Strip, presenting its resolution as the only alternative to a collapse of the current ceasefire, The New York Times reports.

Seven diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity, tell the newspaper the US has left little room for negotiation, including over a desire by some member states to clarify how exactly Gaza will be demilitarized, or how a pathway might be created to Palestinian statehood.

The US president’s 20-point peace plan for the Strip calls for Hamas’s disarmament, the enclave’s demilitarization, and the institution of a temporary, technocratic government that can eventually hand control to a reformed Palestinian Authority. It is vague, however, on the implementation of all these points.

According to the Times report, representatives of Pakistan, Denmark, and Somalia asked US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz for clarification on the PA’s role in Gaza’s imagined future, and Waltz told them they could find the answers in Trump’s 20-point plan.

Likewise, a diplomat from Guyana is said to have asked Waltz whether Security Council members will know the makeup of the planned Board of Peace when they vote on the resolution; Waltz reportedly said he didn’t know, but that the resolution must be passed right away to keep the truce in place.

Waltz reportedly expressed confidence that deploying international forces in the Strip will trigger an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and told diplomats from Slovenia and Algeria that he would take into consideration their concerns about how the Board of Peace will be held accountable.