Members of the United Nations Security Council called on Tuesday for the Gaza ceasefire to be made permanent and sharply criticized Israel's efforts to expand control in the West Bank as a threat to prospects for a two-state solution, ahead of the first meeting of US President Donald Trump's peace panel to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories.
The high-level UN meeting in New York was originally scheduled for today but was hastily moved up a day after Trump announced a meeting of his own committee for the same day and it became clear that it would complicate the travel plans of diplomats planning to attend both. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas of the UN’s most powerful body and Trump’s new initiative, whose broader ambitions to mediate global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it could try to rival the UN Security Council.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said there was an opportunity for the UN's most powerful body to help build a "better future" for Israelis and Palestinians despite the "cycle of violence and suffering" during the two-year Israel-Hamas war.
"Gaza must not be stuck in no man's land - between peace and war," said Cooper, opening the meeting.
In addition to Britain, the foreign ministers of Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia were at the 15-member Council's monthly Middle East meeting after many Arab and Islamic countries last week called for talks on Gaza and Israel's controversial West Bank settlement project before some of them head to Washington for a meeting of Trump's cabinet.
Israel's "annexation (of the West Bank) is a violation of the UN Charter and the most basic rules of international law," said Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour. "It is also a violation of President Trump's plan and poses an existential threat to ongoing peace efforts," he said.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said ahead of the meeting that it was not attracting attention and that the international world's focus would be on the meeting of Trump's Peace Council.
Saar accused the Security Council of being "infected with an anti-Israel obsession" and insisted that no nation has a claim stronger than "the historical and documented right (of Israel) to the land of the Bible."
The committee Trump will chair was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his 20-point plan for the future of Gaza. But the Republican president's new vision of the committee as a mediator in global conflicts has drawn skepticism from key allies.
While more than 20 countries have so far accepted the invitation to join the Board, close US partners, including France, Germany and others, have decided not to join yet and have renewed their support for the UN, which is also in the throes of major reforms and funding cuts.
Mike Walz, the US ambassador to the UN, appeared to criticize countries that have not yet signed up to the Peace Committee, saying that, unlike the Security Council, the Committee "doesn't talk, it does."
"We hear the chatterbox criticizing the Board structure as unconventional, as unprecedented," Volz said on Wednesday, adding that "the old ways don't work."
The Security Council met a day after nearly all of its 15 members – excluding the US – and dozens of other diplomats joined Palestinian Ambassador Mansour as he read a statement on behalf of 80 countries and several organizations condemning Israel's latest actions in the West Bank, demanding immediate change and underlining "strong opposition to any form of annexation."
In recent weeks, Israel has launched a controversial land regularization process that will deepen its control over the occupied West Bank. Israeli Energy Minister Eli Cohen said it amounts to "de facto sovereignty" that will block the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Outraged Palestinians, Arab countries and human rights groups have called the moves an illegal annexation of territory home to about 3,4 million Palestinians, which they seek for a future state.
The UN meeting was also dedicated to the US-brokered ceasefire agreement, which came into effect on October 10th.
UN Political Affairs Chief Rosemary DiCarlo and representatives of Israeli and Palestinian civil society held briefings for the first time since the Hamas-led attacks on October 7, 2023, that triggered the war.
"President Trump has spoken of a golden age for the Middle East. That future is possible and can only be unlocked by resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, removing the central driver of instability and fuel for radicalization," warned Hiba Kassas, a Palestinian who is the founder and executive director of the Geneva-based Principles for Peace Foundation.
Former Israeli diplomat Nadav Tamir, executive director of the organization "J Street Israel," echoed that, saying that a strong coalition of Israelis and Palestinians believes the only way to end the conflict is with a two-state solution.
"Israel cannot remain the democratic homeland of the Jewish people if the Palestinians are denied a homeland of their own. Our future is interdependent," Tamir said.
The UN's DiCarlo said this was a "pivotal moment in the Middle East" that opened up the possibility of the region moving in a new direction. "But that opening is neither certain nor indefinite," she said, and whether it will hold depends on decisions in the coming weeks.
"Our collective efforts must now consolidate the ceasefire in Gaza and alleviate the suffering of the population," she said.
She stated that "concrete progress towards stabilization and recovery, in accordance with international law, is needed to lay the foundations for lasting peace. The meeting of the Peace Committee in Washington on Thursday is an important step."
Implementation of the ceasefire agreement has progressed, including the release of all hostages held by Hamas and an increase in the amount of humanitarian aid reaching Gaza, although the UN says this is insufficient. A new technocratic committee has been appointed to manage Gaza's day-to-day affairs.
But the most challenging steps are yet to come, including the deployment of international security forces, the disarmament of Hamas, and the reconstruction of Gaza.
Trump said this week that members of the Peace Council had pledged $5 billion for the reconstruction of Gaza and would commit thousands of people to an international stabilization and police force for the territory. He did not provide details.
Indonesia says it expects to have up to 8.000 of its troops ready by the end of June for potential deployment to Gaza as part of a humanitarian and peacekeeping mission.
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