UN Security Council to vote on Trump’s Gaza peace plan as US pushes for swift adoption

Gaza plan faces UN showdown

The UN Security Council is set to vote on Monday on a resolution backing US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, according to diplomats.

The United States last week formally began negotiations within the 15-member Council on a draft text that would build on a ceasefire in the two-year conflict between Israel and Hamas and give political endorsement to Trump’s proposal.

A copy of the draft resolution, seen by AFP on Thursday, “welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace,” a transitional governing authority for Gaza — which Trump would in principle chair — with a mandate extending to the end of 2027.

The measure would also permit member states to create a “temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF)” to work alongside Israel, Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police units to secure border zones and demilitarise the Gaza Strip.

In a shift from earlier drafts, the latest text includes a reference to the potential creation of a future Palestinian state.

The United States and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey called Friday for the UN Security Council to quickly adopt the resolution.

"The United States, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Türkiye express our joint support for the Security Council Resolution currently under consideration," the countries said in a joint statement, adding they were seeking the measure's "swift adoption."

Friday's joint statement comes as Russia circulated a competing draft resolution to Council members that does not authorize the creation of a board of peace or the immediate deployment of an international force in Gaza, according to the text seen Friday by AFP.

The Russian version welcomes "the initiative that led to the ceasefire" but does not name Trump.

It also only calls on the UN secretary-general to submit a report that addresses the possibilities of deploying an international stabilization force in war-ravaged Gaza.

The United States has called the ceasefire "fragile," and warned Friday of the risks of not adopting its draft.

"Any refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict," the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, wrote in The Washington Post.

"Every departure from this path, be it by those who wish to play political games or to relitigate the past, will come with a real human cost."

While it seemed until now that Council members supported principles of the peace plan, diplomatic sources noted there were questions about the US text, particularly regarding the absence of a monitoring mechanism by the Council, the role of the Palestinian Authority, and details of the ISF's mandate.

The Russian UN mission said in a statement that its alternative proposal differed by recognizing the principle of a "two-State solution for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement."

"Unfortunately, these provisions were not given due regard in the US draft," it said.

(With AFP inputs)