UN Security Council members blast Israel's West Bank plans on eve of Trump's Board of Peace meeting

UNITED NATIONS — Members of the United Nations Security Council called Wednesday for the Gaza ceasefire deal to become permanent and blasted Israeli efforts to expand control in the West Bank as a threat to prospects of a two-state solution, coming on the eve of President Donald Trump's first Board of Peace gathering to discuss the future of the Palestinian territories.

The high-level U.N. session in New York was originally scheduled for Thursday but was moved up after Trump announced the board's meeting for the same day and it became clear that it would complicate travel plans for diplomats planning to attend both. It is a sign of the potential for overlapping and conflicting agendas between the United Nations' most powerful body and Trump's new initiative, whose broader ambitions to broker global conflicts have raised concerns in some countries that it may attempt to rival the U.N. Security Council.

Pakistan, the only country on the 15-member council that also accepted an invitation to join the Board of Peace, denounced Israel's contentious West Bank settlement project during the meeting as ''null and void'' and said it constitutes a ''clear violation of international law.''

''Israel's recent illegal decisions to expand its control over the West Bank are gravely disturbing,'' Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said.

The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, Israel, Jordan, Egypt and Indonesia also attended the Security Council's monthly Mideast meeting after many Arab and Islamic countries requested last week that it discuss Gaza and the West Bank before some of them head to Washington.

''Annexation is a breach of the U.N. Charter and of the most fundamental rules of international law,'' Palestinian U.N. Ambassador Riyad Mansour said. ''It is a breach of President Trump's plan, and constitutes an existential threat to ongoing peace efforts.''

Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said that attention was not on the U.N. session and that the focus of the international world would be on the Board of Peace meeting.

Bigger ambitions for the Board of Peace

The board to be chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his 20-point plan for Gaza's future. But the Republican president's new vision for the board to be a mediator of worldwide conflicts has led to skepticism from major allies.

While more than 20 countries have so far accepted an invitation to join the board, close U.S. partners, including France, Germany and others, have opted not to join yet and renewed support for the U.N., which also is in the throes of major reforms and funding cuts.

British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said there is an opportunity for the U.N.'s most powerful body to help build ''a better future'' for Israelis and Palestinians despite the ''cycle of violence and suffering'' over the more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas.

''Gaza must not get stuck in a no man's land between peace and war,'' Cooper said as she opened the meeting.

''We are hearing the chattering class criticizing the structure of the board, that it's unconventional, that it's unprecedented,'' Waltz said Wednesday. ''Again, the old ways were not working.''

The Security Council is meeting a day after nearly all of its 15 members — minus the United States — and dozens of other diplomats joined Palestinian ambassador Mansour as he read a statement on behalf of more than 80 countries and several organizations condemning Israel's latest actions in the West Bank, demanding an immediate reversal and underlining ''strong opposition to any form of annexation.''

In the last several weeks, Israel has launched a contentious land regulation process that will deepen its control in 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 the territory, home to roughly 3.4 million Palestinians who seek it for a future state.

‘A pivotal moment in the Middle East'

Hiba Qasas, a Palestinian who is founding executive director of Geneva-based Principles for Peace Foundation, and Nadav Tamir, a former Israeli diplomat who is executive director of J Street Israel, both said they represent a strong coalition of Israelis and Palestinians who believe the only way to end the conflict is through a two-state solution.

''Israel cannot remain the democratic homeland of the Jewish people if Palestinians are denied a homeland of their own. Our futures are interdependent,'' Tamir said.

U.N. political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the council that "this is a pivotal moment in the Middle East'' that opens the possibility for the region to move in a new direction. ''But that opening is neither assured nor indefinite,'' she said, and whether it will be sustained depends on decisions in the coming weeks.

"The Board of Peace meeting in Washington, D.C., tomorrow is an important step,'' she said.

In unusually strong language, DiCarlo rebuked Israel's unilateral actions in the West Bank, saying the world is witnessing its ''gradual de facto annexation.''

But the most challenging steps lie ahead, including the deployment of an international security force, disarming Hamas and rebuilding Gaza.