When the UN Security Council in November approved President Donald Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, his Board of Peace was envisaged “as a transitional administration … that will set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza pursuant to the comprehensive plan.”
The board structure, personnel, and mandate announced by him on Friday suggest that Trump, in fact, envisions it playing a role in a range of global conflicts, not only Gaza. Its charter promises that the board would seek to “solidify peace in the Middle East”, and at the same time “embark on a bold new approach to resolving global conflict”.
This is very different from the original plan, representing an extraordinary personal vehicle for the US president to try to dominate the diplomatic stage. It seeks, effectively, to replace the UN, which he despises, as the primary instrument of global collective diplomacy.
The charter would see Trump as the board chairman, with the right to decide on who is invited to be members. Decisions would be by majority, with each member state getting one vote, but all subject to the chairman’s approval. The agenda would be subject to the chairman who would alone have the power to remove any member, subject to a veto by a two-thirds super-majority.
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It was originally intended to help steer the shattered Palestinian enclave after the devastating two-year Israel-Hamas war, to oversee the work of an executive board of Palestinian technocrats and spend the $1 billion brought by each board member as the price of board membership.
“I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Not everyone is convinced, and Trump threatened on Monday to impose 200 per cent tariffs on French wine, including champagne, if president Emmanuel Macron of France declined to join his proposed board. Macron says he will not be intimidated.
Among those who have agreed to join the board are former British prime minister Tony Blair and his successor Keir Starmer, Germany’s prime minister Friedrich Merz , pro-Trump Argentine president, Javier Milei, Morocco’s King Mohammed VI, and prime minister Viktor Orban of Hungary. President Putin has been invited, as has Belarus – their responses are awaited.
Ireland is considering with EU partners the invitation it has received. However Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee has expressed concern that the board appears to have a wider mandate than Gaza and underlined Ireland’s commitment to the UN.
On both these points she is entirely correct and Ireland’s participation looks unlikely.
