PNN: Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has urged the international community to work together towards a credible pathway to Palestinians’ self-determination. Addressing the inaugural meeting of Board of Peace in Washington, he said the people of Palestine have long endured illegal occupation and immense sufferings.
The prime minister said, to achieve long-lasting peace, it is very important that ceasefire violations must end to preserve lives and advance reconstruction efforts.
He said the people of Palestine must exercise full control of their land and their future in line with the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions.
Shehbaz Sharif said we must work together towards a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination through the establishment of an independent, sovereign and indigenous state of Palestine in line with the relevant resolutions.
He expressed the hope that under the visionary and dynamic leadership of President Donald Trump, we will ensure a just and lasting resolution to the issue of Palestine.
The Prime Minister said we deeply appreciate Donald Trump’s unique initiative and dynamic leadership in advancing peaceful solutions to conflicts across the globe. Shehbaz Sharif said the bold diplomacy of President Trump has surely brought calm to many international serious hot spots. Referring to the Pak-India conflict, the Prime Minister said President Donald Trump’s timely and very effective intervention to achieve ceasefire between India and Pakistan potentially averted loss of tens of millions of people.
United States President Donald Trump on Thursday announced that the US will contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace, which is aimed at resolving international conflicts and began with the mission to reconstruct the Gaza Strip.
“I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” Trump said, adding that the amount “is a very small number when you look at that compared to the cost of war.”
Speaking to the board’s member countries, Trump went on to say, “Together we can achieve the dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering and carnage.”
US President Donald Trump praised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Chief of Defence Forces Field Marshal Asim Munir during a speech in Washington on Thursday.
Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, the US President described Field Marshal Munir as “a tough man, a good fighter, serious fighter,” adding, “I like good fighters actually.”
Trump said he intervened during a military confrontation between Pakistan and India, which he said could have cost “25 million lives.” He described the conflict as “intense”, stating that the “war was raging [and] planes were being shot down.”
“Prime Minister Sharif, I like this man, of Pakistan. There was some fighting going on when I got to know him and your Field Marshal, great general, great Field Marshal, great guy,” Trump said. He recalled PM Sharif telling White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles that Trump had “saved 25 million lives when he stopped the war between India and Pakistan.”
The US President said that 11 jets were shot down during the fighting.
He also praised PM Sharif and the Field Marshal for their cooperation in preventing a larger conflict in the region. “I think we will always be able to settle up with them. It’s a lot of progress that’s made even in the relationship. They are all great men, and I was very proud of it,” Trump said.
Also Trump on Thursday suggested that a decision on Iran could come within the next 10 days. “We may have to take it a step further, or we may not. Maybe we’re going to make a deal,” Trump said. “You’re going to be finding out over the next probably 10 days, but this meeting today is proof with determined leadership, nothing is impossible,” Trump said at the inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace in Washington, DC.
The US military is prepared to strike Iran as soon as this weekend, but Trump has not yet made a final decision about whether he’ll authorize such actions, CNN reported Wednesday. The US president has privately argued both for and against military action and polled advisers and allies on what the best course of action is, one source said.
Trump on Thursday again called on Iran to make a deal, threatening “bad things” if it doesn’t. “Now is the time for Iran to join us on a path that will complete what we’re doing. And if they join us, that will be great. If they don’t join us, that will be great too, but it will be a very different path. They cannot continue to threaten the stability of the entire region, and they must make a deal,” Trump said. “If it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t happen. Bad things will happen if it doesn’t,” he said.
Trump announced on Thursday that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait have given more than $7 billion toward Gaza relief and that Indonesia, Morocco, Albania, Kosovo and Kazakhstan “have all committed troops and police to stabilize Gaza.”
Egypt and Jordan, he added, “are likewise providing very, very substantial help, troops, training and support for a very trustworthy Palestinian police force.”
“Every dollar spent is an investment in stability and the hope of new and harmonious — it’s a region that’s so important and so vibrant and so incredible,” Trump said in remarks at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace in Washington, DC.
Trump did not immediately provide details on numbers of troops or when they would deploy, nor did he give specifics on how the funding would be used.
Trump added that UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs “is raising $2 billion for the support of Gaza.”
He noted that Norway would host an event bringing together the Board of Peace — and once again lamented that he had not received the Nobel Peace Prize before claiming that he was more focused on saving lives.
Japan will also host a fundraising event for regional countries, Trump said. He said he believes China and Russia would be involved in efforts. Both countries have been invited to join the Board of Peace, but have not done so.
Five countries have committed troops to international force in Gaza, commander says
Five countries have already committed troops to an international force that is supposed to deploy to Gaza as part of the US-brokered 20-point ceasefire agreement, the commander of the force said at the Board of Peace’s first meeting on Thursday.
Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania have committed troops to take part in the International Stabilization Force (ISF), said US Army Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers. Training for the ISF and a police force of Palestinians would take place in Egypt and Jordan, he said.
Jeffers did not provide any details on how many troops each country has committed or how soon they would deploy, but he said the ISF would ultimately total 20,000 soldiers working with 12,000 Palestinian police.
The plan calls for the ISF to deploy across five different sectors in Gaza. But in the short term, the force will first deploy to Rafah in southern Gaza, where the first rebuilt neighborhood is supposed to take shape.