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UN Security Council to vote Monday on Trump Gaza plan

UN Security Council to vote Monday on Trump Gaza plan
A Palestinian woman walks through a rainstorm past buildings destroyed in Israeli strikes in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City. (AP)
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Updated 12 sec ago

UN Security Council to vote Monday on Trump Gaza plan

UN Security Council to vote Monday on Trump Gaza plan
  • Unlike previous drafts, the latest mentions a possible future Palestinian state

UNITED NATIONS/UNITED STATES: The UN Security Council will vote Monday on a resolution endorsing US President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan, diplomats said.
Last week the Americans officially launched negotiations within the 15-member Security Council on a text that would follow up on a ceasefire in the two-year war between Israel and Hamas and endorse Trump’s plan.
A draft of the resolution seen Thursday by AFP “welcomes the establishment of the Board of Peace,” a transitional governing body for Gaza — that Trump would theoretically chair — with a mandate running until the end of 2027.
It would authorize member states to form a “temporary International Stabilization Force (ISF)” that would work with Israel and Egypt and newly trained Palestinian police to help secure border areas and demilitarize the Gaza Strip.
Unlike previous drafts, the latest mentions a possible future Palestinian state.
The United States and several Arab and Muslim-majority nations including Egypt, ֱ and Turkiye called Friday for the UN Security Council to quickly adopt the resolution.
“The United States, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, the Kingdom of ֱ, Indonesia, Pakistan, Jordan, and Türkiye express our joint support for the Security Council Resolution currently under consideration,” the countries said in a joint statement, adding they were seeking the measure’s “swift adoption.”
Friday’s joint statement comes as Russia circulated a competing draft resolution to Council members that does not authorize the creation of a board of peace or the immediate deployment of an international force in Gaza, according to the text seen Friday by AFP.
The Russian version welcomes “the initiative that led to the ceasefire” but does not name Trump.
It also only calls on the UN secretary-general to submit a report that addresses the possibilities of deploying an international stabilization force in war-ravaged Gaza.
The United States has called the ceasefire “fragile,” and warned Friday of the risks of not adopting its draft.
“Any refusal to back this resolution is a vote either for the continued reign of Hamas terrorists or for the return to war with Israel, condemning the region and its people to perpetual conflict,” the US ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, wrote in The Washington Post.
“Every departure from this path, be it by those who wish to play political games or to relitigate the past, will come with a real human cost.”
While it seemed until now that Council members supported principles of the peace plan, diplomatic sources noted there were questions about the US text, particularly regarding the absence of a monitoring mechanism by the Council, the role of the Palestinian Authority, and details of the ISF’s mandate.
The Russian UN mission said in a statement that its alternative proposal differed by recognizing the principle of a “two-State solution for the Israeli-Palestinian settlement.”
“Unfortunately, these provisions were not given due regard in the US draft,” it said.


Nine killed, 29 injured in blast at police station in India’s Kashmir

Nine killed, 29 injured in blast at police station in India’s Kashmir
Updated 22 sec ago

Nine killed, 29 injured in blast at police station in India’s Kashmir

Nine killed, 29 injured in blast at police station in India’s Kashmir
  • Most of the dead were policemen, including forensic officials who were examining the explosives
  • The blast comes four days after a deadly car explosion in Indian capital New Delhi
SRINAGAR, India: At least nine people were killed and 29 injured when a pile of confiscated explosives blew up at a police station in the Indian portion of Kashmir late on Friday, police sources said, days after a car blast in New Delhi killed eight people.
Most of the dead were policemen, including forensic officials who were examining the explosives, said the sources, who did not wish to be named. Some of the injured are in critical condition, they said.
“The identification of the bodies is underway, as some have been completely burnt,” one of the sources said.
“The intensity of the blast was such that some body parts were recovered from nearby houses, around 100-200 meters away from the police station.”
The police chief of India’s federally administered Jammu and Kashmir region is expected to address a press conference on the incident shortly.
Earlier, a local police official told Reuters an explosion had ripped through Nowgam police station. The official said fire had engulfed the compound and fire tenders had been rushed to the spot.
The blast comes four days after a deadly car explosion in Indian capital New Delhi killed at least eight people in what the government has called a terror incident.
Nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan have for decades fought periodic wars over the disputed region of Kashmir, which they both claim in full and rule only in part.