US president Donald Trump on Thursday launched his “Board of Peace”, initially designed to cement Gaza’s ceasefire but which he foresees taking a wider role, although he said it would work with the United Nations.
“Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. And we’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations,” Mr Trump said.
Mr Trump, who will chair the board, invited dozens of other world leaders to join, saying he wants it to address challenges beyond the stuttering Gaza ceasefire, stirring misgivings that it could undermine the UN’s role as the main platform for global diplomacy and conflict resolution.
While regional Middle East powers including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional western US allies have been more cautious.
Mr Trump says permanent members must help fund the board with a payment of $1 billion each, and Reuters could not immediately spot any representatives from governments of top global powers or from Israel or the Palestinian Authority at the signing ceremony.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio said the board’s focus would be on making sure the plan for peace in Gaza was fulfilled but that it could also “serve as an example of what’s possible in other parts of the world”.
Apart from the US, no other permanent member of the UN Security Council – the five nations with the most say over international law and diplomacy since the end of the second World War – has yet committed to join.
Russia said late on Wednesday it was studying the proposal after Mr Trump said it would join.
France declined to join. Britain said on Thursday it was not joining at present. China has not yet said whether it will do so.
The board’s creation was endorsed by a UN Security Council resolution as part of Mr Trump’s Gaza peace plan, and UN spokesperson Rolando Gomez said on Thursday that UN engagement with the board would only be in that context.
Few of the countries that have signed up for the board are democracies, although Israel, Argentina and Hungary, whose leaders are close allies of Mr Trump and supporters of his approach to politics and diplomacy, have said they will join.
Board members also include Mr Rubio, the US Gaza negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and former British prime minister Tony Blair.
After hosting a signing ceremony for the board, Mr Trump invited his son-in-law Mr Kushner to present development plans for Gaza, its densely populated cities and towns now in ruins from two years of war.
Mr Kusher announced an outline for a “New Gaza” rebuilt from scratch to include residential towers, data centres and resorts.
Mr Kushner said the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal would address funding for reconstruction in the territory, which lies mostly in ruins, as well as disarmament by Gaza’s dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas, one of the most intractable unresolved issues.
Mr Kushner presented the audience with a slideshow depicting a “master plan” for what he termed a “New Gaza”, displayed on a colour-coded map.
The slides included an image of a Mediterranean coastline packed with glittering towers akin to those in Dubai or Singapore. They suggested redevelopment would begin in Rafah in the south, an area under complete Israeli military control.
But they did not address key issues such as property rights or compensation for Palestinians who lost their homes, businesses and livelihoods during the war. Nor did they address where displaced Palestinians might live during the rebuilding.
Mr Kushner did not say who would fund the redevelopment, which would first require clearing an estimated 68 million tons of rubble and war debris. – Reuters
