• US shares draft resolution with Security Council members, Muslim bloc
• Diplomatic sources say draft lacks language necessary to fully empower Gaza force, Board of Peace
• Washington estimates ISF will be 20,000-strong, have two-year mandate
WASHINGTON: With the United Nations Security Council set to begin negotiations on a US-drafted resolution seeking endorsement of President Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, it looks increasingly likely that the mandate of a proposed international force may prove to be a major bone of contention.
On Thursday, the United States begun expert-level discussions on the resolution with representatives from key Arab and Muslim states.
It formally circulated the draft resolution to the 15 council members a day earlier, and officials claimed to have regional support from Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and the United Arab Emirates for the text.
On Wednesday, Michael Waltz, the US Representative at the United Nations, convened a meeting of all 10 elected members of the UN Security Council to “demonstrate regional support for the resolution to the UN Security Council on Gaza”.
Representatives of Algeria, Denmark, Greece, Guyana, Pakistan, Panama, the Republic of Korea, Sierra Leone, Slovenia, and Somalia participated.
UN ambassadors from Egypt, Qatar, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and the United Arab Emirates also attended the meeting.
The goal of the resolution, according to a statement, is to welcome the Board of Peace and authorise the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) outlined in President Trump’s 20-point plan.
Dawn reached out to Pakistan’s Foreign Office, but there was no official acknowledgement that Islamabad had received the draft, until the filing of this report.
Meanwhile, US outlet Axios reported that Ambassador Waltz also met Palestinian diplomats in New York to discuss the draft Security Council resolution.
A council resolution needs at least nine votes in favour and no vetoes by Russia, China, France, Britain or the United States to be adopted.
Linguistic spin
According to diplomats privy to the draft, the language normally used when the Security Council wants strong action — like sending in a force — comes under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, which gives it the legal authority to use coercive measures when it decides that a situation is a serious threat to international peace and security. The usual language to trigger Chapter VII, sources said, was to say that a situation is “a threat to international peace and security”. But the draft US resolution, according to insiders, says that “the situation in the Gaza Strip threatens the regional peace and the security of neighboring states”.
While this wording is very similar in meaning, the change seems deliberate: it leaves room for some countries to argue later that Chapter VII was not formally invoked, which could allow them to challenge or limit parts of the plan.
This distinction matters because the Board of Peace (BoP) proposed is meant to have wide-ranging powers to manage Gaza. If local authorities do not agree to this, the UN would need a Chapter VII mandate to give the BoP those powers legally. Otherwise, under international law, Gaza would still be considered occupied territory, the rules for which dictate that the occupying power cannot radically change how the territory is run.
Draft resolution
The draft resolution, seen by Reuters, calls for the ISF to “use all necessary measures” — language for force — to carry out its mandate. The ISF would be authorised to protect civilians and humanitarian aid operations, work to secure border areas with Israel, Egypt and a “newly trained and vetted Palestinian police force”.
The force would stabilise security in Gaza by “ensuring the process of demilitarising the Gaza Strip”, something many in the Muslim bloc have misgivings about.
The official said the draft UN resolution gives the ISF authority to disarm Hamas, but that the US was still expecting Hamas to “live up to its end of the agreement” and give up its weapons. The senior US official said the ISF was shaping up to be around 20,000 troops.
While the US has ruled out sending US soldiers into the Gaza Strip, it has been speaking to Indonesia, the UAE, Egypt, Qatar, Turkiye and Azerbaijan to contribute. Pakistan’s name has also cropped up in troop-contribution discussions, but Islamabad has yet to formally comment on these reports.
“We’ve been in steady contact with the potential troop contributors, and what they need in terms of a mandate, what type of language they need,” the US official told Reuters. “Almost all of the countries are looking to have some type of international mandate. The preferred is UN.” When asked when the draft text could be put to a vote, Reuters quoted a US official as saying: “The sooner that we move, the better. We’re looking at weeks, not months.
“Russia and China will certainly have their inputs, and we’ll take those as they come. But at the end of the day, I do not see those countries standing in the way and blocking what is probably the most promising plan for peace in a generation,” the official said.
With input from Reuters
Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2025
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