The US has added the entire text of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war to the UN Security Council Resolution its looking to pass in order to establish an International Stabilization Force in Gaza, according to a copy obtained and verified by The Times of Israel.
The 20-point plan was added as an annex to the resolution, which would effectively enshrine the Trump proposal into international law.
The addition was made over the last 48 hours, a European diplomat tells The Times of Israel.
While the US has held consultations on the resolution this week with other Security Council members along with the delegations of Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the Palestine Liberation Organization, it hasn’t been open to making any significant changes, the diplomat says, confirming reporting in The New York Times.
One of the few changes that was made over the past several days was pertaining to the handover of Gaza’s administration from the US-envisioned Board of Peace to the Palestinian Authority.
Initial versions of the US-sponsored resolution said the transfer will not take place until the PA “has satisfactorily completed its reform program, the satisfaction of which shall be acceptable to the [Board of Peace].”
But the latest version obtained by The Times of Israel says the handover will occur when the PA “has satisfactorily completed its reform program as outlined in” Trump’s 20-point plan.
The 20-point plan offers little detail regarding the reform plan, referring to “various proposals, including President Trump’s peace plan in 2020 and the Saudi-French proposal from earlier this year.
The 2020 plan doesn’t include an explicit reform program but does have a long list of tasks that the PA is required to meet in order to be granted a state, including recognizing Israel as a Jewish state — something that Ramallah has long refused, arguing that it’s 1993 recognition of Israel as part of the Oslo Accords is sufficient.
The French-Saudi plan lists out the reform criteria as the abolishment of the PA’s controversial pay-to-slay program, removing incitement from Ramallah’s textbooks and school curriculum, and the holding of elections.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas signed legislation in February scrapping Ramallah’s old welfare program that included payments to prisoners based on the length of their sentence, and has pledged to hold elections within a year of the war ending. He also said in September that the PA is in the midst of developing educational curricula in accordance with UNESCO standards and that the reform will be completed within two years.