WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Anthony Blinken made a last-minute plea on Tuesday for a plan for post-war reconstruction and governance in Gaza. ceasefire between Israel and Hamas seems awfully close to completion.
Blinken touted the proposal, which has been in the works for a year, and discussed the importance of ensuring its success after the Biden administration leaves office in a speech to the Atlantic Council, a think tank based in Washington.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that the strategic gains of the last 15 months endure and lay the foundation for a better future,” Blinken said. “Too often in the Middle East we have seen how one dictator’s shoes can be replaced by another, or give way to conflict and chaos. »
Blinken said the plan, which he has referenced in the past, envisions the Palestinian Authority inviting “international partners” to set up an interim government authority to manage essential services and oversee the territory. Other partners, including Arab states, would provide forces to provide security in the short term, he added.
This security mission would depend on the path to an independent Palestinian state unifying Gaza and the West Bank and would be responsible for creating “a secure environment for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts and ensuring border security,” Blinken said. The creation of a Palestinian state, which Israel has refused, constitutes a sticking point.
At the same time, the United States would lead a new initiative to train, equip and monitor a Palestinian-led security force for Gaza to focus on law and order and which would take over from the interim mission, a he declared.
Blinken and his top aides have spent months trying to convince Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Gulf Arab countries to sign on to the plan, which outlines how Gaza would be run without Hamas ruling the territory devastated by a war which started in October 2023 after militant group attack in Israel.
These efforts were initially met with resistance, with Israel opposing calls for its complete withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority taking a leading role in governance, while Arab countries insisted that a ceasefire had to be sealed before discussing a “morning after” plan. .
But during several trips In the region since last January, Blinken managed to convince Gulf Arab states, many of whom would be asked to pay for reconstruction, to participate in crafting the proposal.
Blinken’s speech Tuesday was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, who shouted that he was complicit in what they called Israeli war crimes, calling him a “secretary of genocide” and vowing that he would be held responsible for his signature. arms shipments to Israel. The protests were brief and Blinken appeared unfazed.
America’s top diplomat criticized Israel for not doing enough to curb the situation. anti-Palestinian violence in the West Bankwithholding tax revenues from the Palestinian Authority and opposing any significant future role for West Bank leaders in Gaza. He also criticized the Palestinian Authority for resisting long-standing demands for reforms that it has only recently begun to embrace.
“The Palestinian Authority will need to carry out rapid and large-scale reform to establish more transparent and more accountable governance, continuing a process started last year. Israel will have to agree to reunify Gaza in the West Bank under the leadership of a reformed Palestinian Authority,” he said.
Blinken also covered other areas of the administration’s Middle East policy. He praised the United States and others for standing up for Israel during two unprecedented missile attacks from Iran and noted that multiple U.S. administrations from both political parties have committed to never allowing Iran to develop nuclear weapons.
Meanwhile, the prospect of normalization between Israel and Saudi Arabia “is the best incentive to get the parties to make the difficult decisions necessary to fully realize the aspirations of Israelis and Palestinians,” Blinken said.
He noted that “much of the heavy lifting on normalization is complete,” including elements of a new U.S.-Saudi strategic alliance that would make Saudi Arabia an official ally and include a civil nuclear cooperation agreement and increased investment opportunities. But he warned that without a deal on Gaza and a path to a Palestinian state, normalization would not happen.
The urgency to keep the post-war plan for Gaza alive, even without a ceasefire, became more intense after the November election of President-elect Donald Trump. U.S. officials have included Trump aides in discussions over the past month to gain buy-in for the plan, which will require significant U.S. involvement during Trump’s presidency.
One fear was that the project could be abandoned by Trump’s team, in the same way that former President George W. Bush’s administration rejected a U.S.-backed proposal for a post-Iraq -Saddam Hussein, developed while Bill Clinton was in power. Home.
This detailed, multi-volume plan, designed to prevent Iraq from descending into chaos in the event of Saddam’s overthrow, was the result of the “Future of Iraq” project that was launched after Congress called for regime change in Iraq while Clinton was in power.
