Gaza City [Gaza], November 13: The Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized democracies is pushing for a UN Security Council mandate to ensure the swift implementation of the peace plan for the Gaza Strip, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has said.
"We need a mandate from the Security Council so that Hamas can be disarmed and an international security force can assume responsibility," Wadephul said on Wednesday on the second day of the meeting of G7 foreign ministers in Niagara-on-the-Lake in south-eastern Canada.
In addition to Germany and the United States, the G7 countries include France, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The US, France, and the UK are all permanent members of the UN Security Council alongside China and Russia.
Wadephul said the issue was discussed at an initial working session of the G7 meeting on Tuesday evening. He said the foreign ministers agreed that a UN mandate is necessary and should be provided for as quickly as possible.
But, he cautioned, "resolutions cannot be ordered; they have to be negotiated hard." It had become "perfectly clear that the clock is ticking and that we need a security structure as quickly as possible to ensure order in the Gaza Strip," Wadephul said.
Such a security force would only be able to control Palestinian Hamas and other armed groups in the Gaza Strip if there is a clear mandate for the countries sending troops, the German foreign minister said.
Source: Qatar Tribune