WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a last-minute case Tuesday for a plan for the post-war reconstruction and governance of Gaza as a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appears tantalizingly close to completion.
Blinken touted the proposal, which has been in the works for a year, and discussed the importance of ensuring its success after the Biden administration leaves office in a speech to the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that the strategic gains of the last 15 months endure and lay the foundation for a better future,” Blinken said. “All too often, the Middle East, we’ve seen how the shoes of one dictator can be filled by another, or give way to conflict and chaos."
Blinken said the plan, which he has outlined repeatedly in the past, envisions the Palestinian Authority inviting “international partners” to stand up an interim governing authority to run critical services and oversee the territory. At the same time, other partners, notably Arab states would provide forces for an interim security mission, he said.
The Gaza plan was just one part of the speech, which also covered other areas of the administration’s Middle East policy, including Iran and potential normalization of ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Blinken and his top aides have spent months trying to sell Israel, the Palestinian Authority and Gulf Arab nations on the plan, which outlines how Gaza would be run without Hamas in charge, details reconstruction priorities and provides for security in the territory that has been devastated by the war that began in October 2023 after Hamas attacks inside Israel.
Those efforts initially met with resistance from all fronts, with Israel objecting to calls for its complete withdrawal from Gaza and the Palestinian Authority taking a lead role in governance as well as Arab nations insisting that a ceasefire had to be sealed before any discussion of a “day after” plan. A sticking point also has been Arab countries' demand for a pathway to a Palestinian state, which Israel has refused.
But during multiple trips to the region since last January, Blinken managed to get the Gulf Arab states, many of which would be asked to pay for reconstruction, on board with preparing the proposal. The plan calls for reform of the Palestinian Authority and for Arab countries to help train PA security forces in Gaza.
The urgency of keeping the Gaza plan alive even without a ceasefire became more intense after the November election of President-elect Donald Trump. U.S. officials have brought Trump aides into the discussions over the past month to get their buy-in on the plan, which will require significant American involvement during Trump’s presidency.
One fear was that the plan might be abandoned by Trump’s team in a similar fashion to the way former President George W. Bush’s administration tossed aside a U.S.-backed proposal for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq that was crafted while Bill Clinton was in the White House.
That detailed, multi-volume plan designed to prevent Iraq from falling into chaos in the event of Saddam’s ouster was the result of the “Future of Iraq” project that was started after Congress called for regime change in Iraq while Clinton was in office.
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
