U.S.-led talks on Gaza stabilization force end with few commitments

Only Italy reportedly committed to supplying troops among the 45 attending countries.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Very few concrete results emerged from Tuesday’s U.S.-led meeting in Doha, Qatar, on establishing an International Stabilization Force (ISF) for Gaza, which is meant to oversee the second stage of the American-brokered peace plan for the enclave.

Described by American officials as “planning discussions,” the meeting, hosted by U.S. Central Command, centered on how and where such a force would act, how many military and/or logistical units each country would provide, and how it would be funded.

About 45 countries sent representatives to the talks in Doha, Qatar, out of 70 that US officials said were invited.

The list did not include Israel.

Participants included Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan and Egypt; Muslim-majority states such as Azerbaijan, Pakistan and Indonesia; and numerous Western nations, among them, Germany, France, Spain and Poland, as well as the US and Canada.

Several of the states have no diplomatic relations with Israel, or maintain strained ties due to their sharply critical positions during the war.

Only Italy reportedly committed to supplying troops, while some other countries offered logistical or financial assistance.

A European diplomat told The Times of Israel that the meeting ended with “no clear answer” regarding the ISF’s mandate.

This is a critical issue, as many countries have said they are unwilling to endanger their troops by having them deploy in the Hamas-controlled half of the Strip or assume responsibility for overseeing the terror group’s disarmament.

Indonesia, for example, has said it could send up to 20,000 soldiers to Gaza, but only for reconstruction efforts or humanitarian and medical support.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that if the envisioned force will not disarm Hamas, Israel will do so “the hard way,” stressing that the country cannot again tolerate an armed terror threat on its border.

Turkey — reportedly one of the few countries eager to participate in the ISF — was not invited at Israel’s insistence, despite U.S. efforts to include Ankara.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government had been extremely critical of Israel even before the two-year War of Revival, but its rhetoric intensified sharply during the conflict, as Ankara echoed Hamas accusations against Israel throughout the war.

According to Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, “The reported disagreement over inviting Turkey to this meeting encapsulates the whole dilemma surrounding the ISF.”

“The point of this aspect of the Gaza plan is to disarm Hamas and keep technocratic administrators and independent Palestinian enforcers safe,” he continued, “but no nation wants to put its troops in harm’s way.”

“Ankara, meanwhile, is willing to deploy, but for all the wrong reasons,” he said. “As an imperialist power seeking to assert itself in key parts of the old Ottoman Empire, it wants to be in Gaza. But Turkey’s aggressive ambitions are directed against Israel.”

“Turkey would not disarm Hamas,” he concluded, “but would instead protect the group and preserve its influence.”