KARACHI: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said Washington was grateful to Pakistan for offering to consider participation in the proposed International Stabilisation Force for Gaza.
This comes despite Islamabad not yet confirming any commitment to the deployment of troops.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Washington, Rubio responded to a question on whether the US had received Pakistan’s consent to send troops to Gaza for peacebuilding and peacemaking: “We are very grateful to Pakistan for their offer to be a part of [the peacekeeping force] or at least their offer to consider being a part of it”.
Rubio added: “I think we owe them a few more answers before we can ask anybody to firmly commit. But I feel very confident that we have a number of nation-states acceptable to all sides in this who are willing to step forward and be a part of that stabilisation force and…Pakistan is key if they agree”, again adding that “we owe them a few more answers before we get there”.
Rubio said that “the next step” was announcing “the border of peace…the Palestinian technocratic group”, which he said would allow stakeholders to “firm up the stabilisation force, including how it’s going to be paid for, what their rules of engagement are, what their role will be in demilitarisation…”.
However, Pakistan’s Foreign Office said on Thursday that no decision had yet been taken on participation in the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) for Gaza.
“We have not taken a decision to participate in the ISF as yet”, Foreign Office spokesperson Tahir Hussain Andrabi said at the FO’s weekly media briefing.
Responding to a query, the spokesperson said discussions on the ISF were ongoing in “certain capitals”, but Pakistan had neither committed to participating nor received any formal or specific request.
The clarification followed reports by some media outlets over the past few days suggesting that Pakistan was under growing pressure to join the ISF.
Last month, Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar had said Pakistan was ready to commit troops to a Gaza peace force but had clearly distanced the country from any role in disarming Hamas.
Trump’s Gaza plan, revealed in September this year, had envisaged the deployment of troops from Muslim-majority countries during a transitional ‘stabilisation’ phase.
In November, the UN Security Council adopted a US-drafted resolution endorsing Trump’s plan, including the deployment of the ISF.
