Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said that US President Trump had given Gaza peace plan after due consultation with the head of eight Islamic countries including Pakistan, adding that Pakistan’s leadership would decide about sending troops to support the peace-keeping force in Gaza.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, DPM Dar said Hamas has endorsed this peace plan as during consultations, one country had assured that Hamas would accept this peace plan. He said Palestinian law enforcement agencies would be operating on the ground while the security forces of other countries will act as peace force. There will be Palestinian forces in the field. Indonesia has said 20,000 personnel, Pakistan has yet to decide.
Dar also shared details Trump’s meeting with Muslim leaders last week on the sidelines of United Nations General Assembly’s (UNGA) 80th session. The meeting, where Trump discussed his place for ending the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, brought together leaders from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Turkiye and Indonesia.
Dar said it is proposed that there will be a Palestinian technocratic government, with a majority of Palestinians. He said former UK premier Tony Blair was working for quite some time, maybe this time he will get a chance.
Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister said Pakistan's policy is very clear, we have visited it repeatedly in this visit too, but there has been no change in Pakistan's policy about Palestine issue.
He said a technocratic government will be set up in Gaza which will include Palestinians and non-Palestinians, and it will probably be headed by Tony Blair.
Dar said, “We did not make a deal with Israel, we made a deal with America, we should have good hopes”. If Israel has said anything about this proposal, it should be ignored. He said Hamas dialogues were going on and one country guaranteed that Hamas would not oppose peace plan. He said the authority that is in place at the moment is the Palestinian Authority and it has welcomed the plan.
There are five Arab countries who guaranteed that Hamas would accept it and if Hamas does nothing, we should accept it.
Talking about PM and Army Chief visit to US and meeting with President Trump, Dar said the visit of Pakistan’s delegation to the US had two main purposes — one pertaining to activities at the UNGA and the other to work with some “like-minded countries” on trying to end the misery in Gaza as a member of the Muslim ummah.
He said the prime minister was very clear about Gaza peace. We had had consultations before leaving for the US. And eight countries, including Pakistan, agreed to take up this matter very proactively with President Trump during the US visit.
He added that the meeting with Trump was held with the objectives to try for a ceasefire in Gaza, make arrangements for sending humanitarian aid to the strip without any hurdles, stop the forced displacement of Palestinians and make arrangements for the return of those displaced from the Gaza, plan for Gaza’s reconstruction and stop Israel’s attempts to annex the West Bank.
“When these objectives were conveyed to him (Trump) and he was asked to work with us on achieving them,” Dar said, adding that the US president then proposed that his team would devise a workable solution with the foreign ministers of the eight Muslim countries that participated in the meeting.
He said it was decided that the details of meetings held in this regard would be secret and classified. After sharing further details of how the proposal for ending the Israeli onslaught in Gaza was finalised, he said he had received messages from the Saudi foreign minister yesterday.
DPM Dar said that Saudi counterpart told him that five countries had reached a consensus on joint statement regarding the Gaza plan and that our agreement was needed on this matter as well, and that they had also reached out to Indonesia and the UAE. Dar highlighted that the Palestinian Authority had also welcomed the statement.