Gaza\u2019s future must be determined and led by Palestinians themselves, Turkey and six key Muslim nations declared on Monday following high-level talks in Istanbul \u2014 warning against any new form of external control over the war-ravaged territory. Turkey, which played a pivotal role in brokering the now fragile three-week-old ceasefire, urged Muslim countries to use their collective influence in shaping Gaza\u2019s reconstruction and long-term stability. \u201cOur clear principle is that Palestinians should govern themselves and ensure their own security,\u201d Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said at a post-meeting news conference. \u201cThe international community should support this in the best possible way \u2014 diplomatically, institutionally, and economically. No one wants to see a new system of tutelage emerge.\u201d The October 10 ceasefire, brokered by US President Donald Trump to end two years of relentless fighting, has remained uneasy amid renewed Israeli strikes and reports of Palestinian attacks on Israeli forces. The Istanbul meeting brought together foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Pakistan, and Indonesia \u2014 all of whom were previously consulted by Trump in September during the UN General Assembly before he unveiled his Gaza peace plan. \u201cWe\u2019ve now reached a critical juncture,\u201d Fidan said. \u201cWe do not want the genocide in Gaza to resume.\u201d He added that all seven nations supported allowing Palestinians to take full control of Gaza\u2019s security and governance. Fidan, who met over the weekend with a Hamas delegation led by chief negotiator Khalil al-Hayya, said the group was \u201cready to hand Gaza\u2019s administration to a Palestinian committee.\u201d He also voiced optimism that ongoing reconciliation talks between Hamas and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority \u201cwill bear fruit soon,\u201d adding that unity between Palestinian factions would \u201cstrengthen Palestine\u2019s position within the international community.\u201d Earlier, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan said Hamas was \u201ccommitted to upholding the ceasefire agreement\u201d and called on Muslim nations to take \u201ca leading role\u201d in Gaza\u2019s recovery and reconstruction. “We believe the reconstruction plan prepared by the Arab League and the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation)should be implemented immediately,” he said of the plan unveiled in March. Task force needs UN mandate Turkey has been instrumental in backing Hamas, whose October 7, 2023 attack on Israel sparked the war in Gaza. Fidan said it was crucial that the emerging International Stabilisation Force that will monitor the Gaza ceasefire under Trump’s plan, have a “mandate defined by a UN Security Council resolution and a framework for legitimacy”. Washington is currently working with Arab and international partners to decide on the composition of the force, with Turkey hoping to play a role, despite fierce opposition from Israel. “The countries we’ve spoken with say they will decide whether to send troops based on … the ISF’s mandate and authority,” Fidan said. “First, a general consensus needs to be reached on a draft, then it needs to be approved by the members of the Security Council. “And it needs to be free from vetoes by any of the permanent (UNSC) members,” he said of a blocking move frequently used by key Israel ally Washington. Israel has long viewed Turkey’s diplomatic overtures with suspicion over Ankara’s close ties with Hamas and adamantly opposes it joining the task force that is meant to take over after Israeli troops withdraw from Gaza. A Turkish disaster relief team, sent to help efforts to recover the remains of those trapped under the rubble — including Israeli hostages seized by Hamas — has been stuck at the border because of Israel’s refusal to let them in, according to Ankara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gaza\u2019s future must be determined and led by Palestinians themselves, Turkey and six key Muslim nations declared on Monday following high-level talks in Istanbul \u2014…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28670,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28669","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=28669"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28669\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/28670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=28669"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=28669"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diplomacypakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=28669"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}