The Arab League on Thursday called for the deployment of a United Nations peacekeeping force to the Gaza Strip and the Israeli-occupied West Bank. until a two-state solution can be negotiated, in a statement that also called on the UN Security Council to set a time limit for that political process.
Diplomats have occasionally mentioned the idea of deploying UN peacekeepers to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the Arab League statement appeared to be the first time the group had officially made such a request in a written document, according to UN spokesman Farhan Haq.
UN peacekeepers are unlikely to be deployed to Gaza and the West Bank in the near future because sending UN peacekeepers to any conflict requires Council authorization first. UN forces, which typically draw from the armed forces of various countries, do not enter live battle zones or engage in combat. Both Israel and Hamas would also have to agree to have UN peacekeepers on the ground.
“First there has to be peace to maintain,” Haq said. “We do not engage in active combat and the parties themselves have to agree to allow the presence of peacekeepers. “We did not enter as an enemy force or an occupying force.”
The proposal came as part of a final statement issued by the league after its 22 members met Thursday in Manama, Bahrain, a summit dominated by discussion of the war in Gaza.
In addition to calling for an immediate ceasefire and accusing Israel of obstructing those efforts, the Arab League called for “the deployment of international United Nations peacekeeping and protection forces to the occupied Palestinian territory until the peace settlement is implemented.” two States.”
The United Nations, Haq said, would be willing to take other steps requested by the Arab League, such as organizing or leading a conference toward peace and a ceasefire in the conflict. But no definitive plans have been discussed yet, he said.
Asked whether the United States would support the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers, a State Department spokesman, Vedant Patel, told reporters in Washington that bringing in “additional security forces” could potentially compromise Israel’s campaign to dismantle Hamas.
The Arab League statement, published in Bahrain’s state media, also reiterated the group’s position that a two-state solution should be based on borders that existed before the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The group said that the Council should not only take “clear measures” to implement such a solution, but also set a time limit for doing so.
In an address to the summit on Thursday, António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said a two-state solution was “the only permanent way to end the cycle of violence and instability.”
“The war in Gaza is an open wound that threatens to infect the entire region,” Guterres said, adding that “nothing” could justify the Hamas-led October 7 attacks against Israel or the “collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” “
The Arab League’s call for U.N. peacekeepers came amid fervent debate over how Gaza should be governed after the war. Negotiations over a ceasefire have been complicated by Israel’s ground invasion of Rafah. They were already deadlocked by bitter disagreements between Israel and Hamas over how long a truce should last and the terms of an exchange of hostages for Palestinian prisoners and detainees.