Germany currently rules out joining an international force for Gaza

BERLIN, December 26 (DPA/EP) –

The German authorities on Friday ruled out the possibility of joining an international force to stabilize the Gaza Strip “in the near future” and left the German army “on the sidelines”, at least for the moment.

This was explained by German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, who said that “many people cannot imagine that German soldiers carry out functions of this type in the region” of the Middle East.

“Germany is ready to play a constructive role in the structures included in the UN Security Council resolution, such as the formation of a peace council. However, Berlin has not yet received an official invitation to participate in such a council, he explained.

Berlin nevertheless called for the implementation “as quickly as possible” of the second phase of the peace plan proposed by the United States for the Palestinian enclave. “We must not allow the current division of Gaza, with one part controlled by the Israeli army and the other increasingly controlled by Hamas, to become permanent,” he warned.

Wadephul acknowledged that there were difficulties in implementing the peace plan and asked for patience. “As much as we want this to end tomorrow, we have to prepare ourselves for the fact that it will still be a long process.” Hamas remains active “politically and militarily” and “could even recover,” he said.

“Currently, we are still very far from being able to begin the reconstruction process in the Gaza Strip,” he lamented, while stressing that Germany can assume “a mediation role which takes into account the security of Israel and is based on relations between the parties”.

The minister, however, condemned the Israeli government’s announcement of the possibility of approving nearly twenty new settlements in the West Bank, a measure he rejected. “In the long term, the best solution would be two states. Colonial expansion threatens to make this impossible,” he concluded.