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Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and DPM Ishaq Dar interact with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2025. Courtesy: Foreign Office/X
ISLAMABAD:
As US President Donald Trump prepares to reveal details of a UN-sanctioned stabilization force for Gaza, Pakistan is maintaining its deliberately opaque position on whether it will commit troops to the proposed International Stabilization Force (ISF).
Trump announced Sunday that member states of his newly formed Peace Board have pledged thousands of people ahead of his inaugural summit.
However, in Islamabad, officials have neither confirmed nor denied Pakistan’s possible involvement, signaling caution at a time of heightened diplomatic sensitivity.
The first formal meeting of the Peace Board is scheduled for February 19 in Washington.
Trump is expected to present a multibillion-dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and outline the structure and mandate of the stabilization force.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is scheduled to attend the summit, although Pakistani officials have remained mum on whether troop deployment is on the table.
Security and Foreign Office sources refused to confirm or deny any commitment, saying discussions were ongoing and sensitive. “No decision has been made public,” said an official who requested anonymity.
The issue is believed to have come up in talks between Army Chief of Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the sidelines of the Munich Security Dialogue on Saturday.
While neither side revealed specific details, diplomatic sources indicated that the proposed stabilization force and the contours of its mandate were reviewed.
Pakistan had earlier backed Trump’s 20-point peace initiative in Gaza along with key Muslim countries and joined the Peace Board after its formation was endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution.
However, Islamabad has publicly maintained that its participation in any force would depend on a limited and clearly defined mandate.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar has previously stated that Pakistan would only consider joining a force in Gaza if its role was strictly limited to peacekeeping and humanitarian stabilization, not disarming Hamas or attacking any other Palestinian group.
The United States has acknowledged that several member states harbor reservations about the scope of the ISF’s mandate.
Under Trump’s proposal, Hamas fighters willing to lay down their arms and commit to peaceful coexistence would be offered amnesty, while others could be granted safe passage out of Gaza.
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Peace Board members would pledge more than $5 billion for reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
He added that several countries had voluntarily committed thousands of troops for the stabilization mission and local policing tasks.
US officials said delegations from more than 20 countries would attend the summit, including regional powers such as Türkiye, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as nations such as Indonesia.
Although Washington insists the initiative is limited to Gaza, critics have warned that the Peace Board could become a parallel diplomatic platform competing with the United Nations.
For Pakistan, any decision to deploy troops would have substantial political and security implications, especially given domestic sensitivities around involvement in a conflict involving Hamas and Israel.
For now, Islamabad appears inclined to wait for greater clarity on the force’s mandate before publicly revealing its responsibility.
