Munich; Europe and America face off over Gaza

According to Isna, the first day of the Munich Security Conference was accompanied by a diplomatic dispute between Europe and America over the fate of Gaza.

While US President Donald Trump’s alleged “Peace Council” plan to govern the Gaza Strip is at the center of the dispute, senior European officials have explicitly referred to it as a personal tool of the Republican White House leader that lacks international legitimacy.

Strong warning from the foreign policy official of the European Union

According to the Guardian magazine, “Kaya Callas”, the foreign policy official of the European Union, criticized the charter of Trump’s “Peace Council” plan and emphasized that the main goal of the UN ruling and resolution was to help Gaza through the mechanism of a peace council, but in the Trump Peace Council plan, due to the lack of mention of Gaza or the United Nations in its charter, this goal has been abandoned and it has no accountability to the Palestinians or the United Nations.

In his words that show the depth of the differences between the parties, he emphasized that the UN Security Council in its resolution for Gaza predicted a “Peace Council”, but set a time limit for it until 2027, gave the Palestinians the right to express their views, and clearly referred to Gaza. Kalas stated that considering that the charter of Trump’s peace council did not mention these things. Therefore, despite the existence of the Security Council resolution, the said Peace Council does not reflect it.

Accusing Spain; Trying to get around UN Resolution 1947

In continuation of these sharp criticisms, “Jose Manuel Albarez”, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, also joined the ranks of the opponents of the American plan.

He accused Trump of trying to circumvent the main mission of the United Nations for Gaza. Pointing out that Europe is one of the main financiers of the Palestinian Authority, Spain’s foreign minister expressed anger and concern over Europe’s exclusion from the decision-making process for the future of Gaza.

Democrats worry about financial abuse in the Gaza reconstruction plan

Disputes over Trump’s peace council for Gaza are not limited to Europe.

US Democratic Senator Chris Murphy also expressed deep concern and warned that the structure of this peace council is designed in such a way that it has no supervision and control to prevent billions of dollars of reconstruction funds from flowing into the pockets of Donald Trump’s friends and relatives.

According to the Guardian, while these positions have revealed for the first time high-level disagreements over Trump’s controversial Gaza project, they have also increased pressure on the fragile ceasefire in the strip. These tensions have risen while the next meeting of this so-called “Peace Council” is scheduled to be held next week in Washington.

Reaction of Trump’s special envoy: “Time is running out”

On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Nikolay Mladinov, Trump’s special envoy for Gaza affairs, tried to avoid political controversies and emphasized the need for immediate action.

He said with a warning tone: “Everything must go very quickly.” If we do not act like this, we will not witness the implementation of the second phase of the ceasefire, but we will witness the second phase of the war.”

Mentioning that he does not want to be involved in the accusation of committing genocide by the Zionist regime in the Gaza Strip, Mladinov stated that he will focus on improving humanitarian aid, disarming all factions and ending the division of Gaza into 2 parts under the control of Israel and the Palestinians.

Addressing the critics with a key question, he said: “If the issue of Hamas and the division of Gaza into two parts is not resolved, please tell me how we will reach a two-state solution?” I don’t see a way around it. If Gaza is not unified and a technocrat committee is not ruling it and Israeli forces are not withdrawn, reconstruction will be impossible and the price of this failure will be paid by Israelis and Palestinians in the end.

The challenge of the American representative with Europe: breaking the status quo with “centralized multilateralism”

In response to Kalas’ criticism, Mike Waltz, the US ambassador to the United Nations, sharply attacked what he called “unfounded concerns” about the Peace Council plan.

Claiming that Trump’s approach is “centralized multilateralism”, he claimed: “The current situation has led to an endless war and Hamas’ rule over Gaza must end.”

Waltz said that Indonesia is ready to contribute 8,000 soldiers to the “International Stabilization Force” in Gaza and sarcastically said to the Europeans: “Some countries do not want to allocate billions of dollars for the reconstruction of Gaza through the United Nations system, and this organization should be returned to its basic principles, which is peacemaking.”

According to the Guardian, the prominent Palestinian activist “Mustafa Barghouthi” expressed his doubts about the current discussions of the West about Gaza with a dark vision of the future and said that these discussions are completely far from the realities on the ground.

He emphasized with a warning: “The entire West Bank has been opened to settlements and Israel is hammering the last nail on the coffin of the Oslo agreement.” Barghouthi emphasized that the main issue is not only accountability for the genocide, but also stopping the gradual death process of the two-state solution.

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