DHAKA
\nFacing domestic backlash, Bangladesh has backtracked on its initial interest in joining the US-planned military force in Gaza, with the interim administration saying it would leave the decision to the government appointed after next month\u2019s polls.
\nThe possibility of Bangladesh joining the International Stabilization Force \u2014 a part of US President Donald Trump\u2019s controversial Gaza peace plan \u2014 was floated by National Security Adviser Khalilur Rahman last week, during his visit to Washington D.C., where he said he had \u201cexpressed Bangladesh\u2019s interest in principle\u201d to join it.
\nThe announcement was immediately met with criticism from civil society at home, where any move perceived as undermining Bangladesh\u2019s support for the Palestinians is unlikely to be popular.
\nFollowing the pushback, the country\u2019s top diplomat, Foreign Affairs Adviser Touhid Hossain, told reporters on Wednesday that \u201cno decision has yet been made\u201d and that the caretaker Cabinet \u2014 which is overseeing Bangladesh until new leadership takes office after the February vote \u2014 \u201cwill not do anything \u2026 that the next government would need to completely reverse.\u201d
\nBangladesh will hold general elections on Feb. 12, and the main two parties contesting it \u2014 the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami \u2014 have already distanced themselves from the caretaker government\u2019s decisions.
\n\u201cWe will not blindly adhere to any policy that has been adopted by this interim government,\u201d Nawshad Zamir, BNP\u2019s international affairs secretary, told Arab News, while Jamaat\u2019s spokesperson, Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, said the party would \u201cnot take any such steps that violate the UN and existing international laws and stand in contrast to our people\u2019s aspirations.\u201d
\nWhile the UN\u2019s approach to Trump\u2019s plan is equivocal, the international force has been rejected by Palestinian groups in Gaza as a \u201cform of deep international partnership in the war of extermination waged by the (Israeli) occupation against our people.\u201d
\nMore than 71,400 Palestinians have been killed and 171,000 wounded as a result of Israeli attacks since the start of its war on Gaza in October 2023, according to Gaza\u2019s Ministry of Health. The true death toll is feared to be much higher, as many people have died due to injury and lack of access to healthcare and food \u2014 caused by the Israeli military\u2019s destruction of Gaza\u2019s infrastructure, and the blocking of medical aid and food.
\nMost of the Muslim countries which took part in a US-organized Gaza summit in Sharm El-Sheikh in October and initially considered joining Trump\u2019s stabilization force have either pulled out of the plan or postponed announcing their decision.
\nBangladesh\u2019s sudden expression of interest came as a surprise as it had neither been part of the Sharm El-Sheikh meeting nor historically involved in Middle Eastern politics.
\nHumayun Kabir, former Bangladeshi ambassador to the US, linked it to the current pressures Bangladesh was facing from the Trump administration, including increased taxation of remittances and visa restrictions.
\n\u201cIn this context, I think Bangladesh has expressed its interest to join the US-led Gaza force in a bid to neutralize these pressures to some extent,\u201d Kabir told Arab News.
\nBut the political cost of actually following through could be too high for those who would decide to implement it.
\n\u201cThe people of Bangladesh have unconditional support for Palestine,\u201d Kabir said. \u201cIn this backdrop it would be politically difficult for the government to go for anything that goes against the interests of the Palestinians.\u201d
\nFor political scientist Prof. Amena Mohsin, Bangladesh\u2019s involvement in the force would be against its longstanding position of solidarity.
\n\u201cWe can\u2019t go against our long-held positions regarding Palestine. We shouldn\u2019t get involved in any controversy initiated by the Western powers,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t think any decision of this kind would be popular or get people\u2019s support in Bangladesh.\u201d
\nShahidul Alam, a prominent photographer and Time Magazine Person of the Year 2018, said it would be \u201cbetrayal.\u201d
\nAlam, who last year represented Bangladesh in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition to break Israel\u2019s illegal siege of Gaza, said that he understood there was geopolitical pressure on Bangladesh but participating in \u201cthis sham of a peacekeeping force\u201d would be a shameful act that Bangladeshis would never live down.
\n\u201cThis so-called stabilization force is not about peace,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is about disarming resistance. It is about legitimizing occupation. It is about finishing what bombs could not: the complete subjugation of a people who refuse to surrender their right to exist in dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA Facing domestic backlash, Bangladesh has backtracked on its initial interest in joining the US-planned military force in Gaza, with the interim administration saying it would leave the decision to the government appointed after next month\u2019s polls. The possibility of Bangladesh joining the International Stabilization Force \u2014 a part of US President Donald Trump\u2019s controversial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":525895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-525854","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n