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ISLAMABAD:
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend the first meeting of US President Donald Trump’s Peace Board in Washington today (Thursday).
In addition to eight Muslim countries, several other nations will participate in the meeting that Trump will chair. Prime Minister Shehbaz will attend the session along with a delegation that also includes Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar, who also serves as the country’s foreign minister.
Discussions at the meeting will focus on rebuilding Gaza, strengthening the ceasefire and meeting funding commitments.
Before Pakistan commits to sending troops to Gaza as part of the International Stabilization Force (ISF), it wants assurances from the United States that the mission will be to keep peace and not disarm Hamas, three sources told Reuters.
Trump is expected to announce a multibillion-dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a U.N.-sanctioned stabilization force for the Palestinian enclave.
Three government sources said during the visit to Washington that Sharif wanted to better understand the purpose of the ISF, under what authority they operated and what the chain of command was before making a decision on deploying troops.
“We are ready to send troops. Let me make it clear that our troops could only be part of a peace mission in Gaza,” said one of the sources, a close aide of Prime Minister Shehbaz.
“We will not participate in any other role, such as disarming Hamas. It is out of the question,” he said. Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza calls for a force of Muslim nations to oversee a transition period for reconstruction and economic recovery in the devastated Palestinian territory, and Washington has been pressuring Islamabad to join.
Analysts say Pakistan would be an asset to the multinational force, with its experienced military that has gone to war with archrival India and faced insurgencies.
“We can initially send a couple of thousand troops at any time, but we need to know what role they will play,” the source added.
Two of the sources said the prime minister, who met with Trump earlier this year in Davos and late last year at the White House, was likely to have an audience with him on the sidelines of the meeting or the next day at the White House.
Initially designed to cement the Gaza ceasefire, Trump sees the Peace Board, launched in late January, taking on a broader role in resolving global conflicts. Some countries have reacted cautiously, fearing it could become a rival to the United Nations.
While Pakistan has supported the establishment of the junta, it has expressed concerns against the mission to demilitarize Hamas.
Analysts say Islamabad will need to strike a balance between pleasing Trump by providing troops and any potential domestic fallout in a predominantly Muslim nation.
Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s former ambassador to the United States, said the Pakistani public supported sending troops to Gaza only to help protect Palestinians.
“If developments in Gaza after the deployment do not improve the position of the Palestinians, there could be a massive public reaction in Pakistan,” said Haqqani, now a scholar at the Hudson Institute in Washington.
(WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM REUTERS)
