DPI – President Dr Mohamed Irfaan Ali has said that Guyana welcomes the adoption of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolution, which endorses President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan for Gaza.
The president made this comment on his Facebook social media page on Tuesday afternoon.
“We applaud the USA for its leadership in this initiative”, the president noted.
The UNSC on Monday approved President Trump’s peace plan for Gaza. This significant breakthrough provides a legal U.N. mandate for the administration’s vision on how to move beyond the ceasefire and rebuild the Gaza Strip after two years of what the international community, including President Ali, has described as a genocide against Palestinians.
The Council’s vote also marked a major diplomatic win for the Trump administration.
Over the past two years, amid ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, the United States faced isolation at the United Nations due to its strong support for Israel.
The U.S. resolution calls for an International Stabilisation Force to enter, demilitarise, and govern Gaza. The proposal also proposes a “Board of Peace” to oversee the peace process, although it does not specify the board’s composition.
“As a matter of principle, Guyana voted in favour of the resolution, which will build on the existing ceasefire and advance sustainable peace for the Palestinian people”, according to the Guyanese leader.
The resolution was adopted with 13 votes in favour and none against. Russia and China, both of which could have vetoed it, abstained, apparently influenced by support for the resolution from several Arab and Muslim nations: Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Indonesia, Turkey, and Pakistan, a member of the Council.
Throughout the conflict, in September of this year, President Ali told a UN Meeting in New York that ‘power must not triumph over principle’.
Dr Ali called for intensified action by the United Nations (UN) on critical global issues such as the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, stating that measures guided by principle must be employed to restore peace.
“The United Nations’ noble mission to maintain international peace and security will ring hollow if it allows power to triumph over principle and might to override right in remaining faithful to its charter. The [UN] must ensure that the survival and progress of humanity are not mortgaged to the ambitions of the powerful,” he said.
President Ali had told the 80th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York that Guyana insists on a two-state solution as the only option to resolve the long-lasting Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
He classified the destruction of Gaza not as warfare, but “mass extermination, a systematic slaughter and displacement of Palestinian men, women, and children.”
“We must take urgent action to halt the genocide, return the hostages, and accelerate our efforts towards a two-state solution. We urge Qatar, Egypt, and the United States to continue their efforts in this regard,” President Ali said.
