The White House has begun the formation of the so-called Gaza Peace Council, with the names of the body's leaders being announced in the last few days and invitations also being extended to a number of countries to join the new organization, BTA reports.
The White House announced on Friday that Bulgarian diplomat Nikolay Mladenov will serve as the High Representative for Gaza. The board members include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and others.
In November last year, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution endorsing Trump's plan to end the war between Israel and "Hamas" in the Gaza Strip and welcomed the creation of the council as a transitional administration that will set the framework and coordinate funding for the reconstruction of the Palestinian territory, recalls the "New York Times". The Gaza Strip was devastated during the two-year war. According to UN data, about 80% of the buildings there are damaged or destroyed. A large part of the population of about two million still lives in tents among millions of tons of debris, the American publication points out.
Trump, who will chair the board, said last week on his social network "Truth Social" that this would be "the largest and most prestigious board ever assembled, anywhere", although many things about the organization remain unclear, commented the "New York Times". The Council was designated as a global peacebuilding organization, with permanent membership costing each country $1 billion, the Washington Post reported.
A U.S. official confirmed the amount, but noted that there was no "mandatory requirement" to pay a fee to join the council. However, the term of membership for countries that do not pay the $1 billion fee will be three years. The information about the fee was first published by Bloomberg, the Washington Post reports.
The U.S. official also confirmed the information that the Peace Council has a draft charter, which the White House has not yet made public. The Times of Israel reported. yesterday published a copy of the document, the "Washington Post" noted.
"The White House on Friday announced with great fanfare the creation of the council, which is part of Trump's plan to oversee the reconstruction of the devastated Gaza Strip, but the circulated draft charter does not mention the region directly. This has fueled speculation that Trump is seeking to build a US-led alternative to the United Nations," the "Washington Post" also wrote. The charter is accompanied by invitations to world leaders, including countries such as Argentina, Canada, Egypt, France, Hungary, India, Italy and Turkey.
The copy of the document published by the "Times of Israel" newspaper suggests that the council would have a much broader mandate than the initial description that Trump gave in October, the "Washington Post" commented. The draft charter states that the council's mission is to "promote stability, restore credible and legitimate governance, and ensure lasting peace in areas affected by or threatened by conflict." The charter also notes "the need for a more flexible and effective international peacebuilding body" and "a coalition of states willing to engage in practical cooperation and effective action." European leaders are consulting on Trump's expansive ambitions for the council and are unlikely to accept it in its current form, a Brussels official told the Washington Post. But those same leaders do not want to ignite another conflict with Trump at a time when they are confronting the US leader over Greenland and need his support for Ukraine. According to the European representative, there is no great desire to pay large sums of money for a new organization that will be dominated by Trump's vision of a new world order, although the Europeans remain committed to financing the reconstruction of Gaza.
Aaron David Miller - a former State Department diplomat who has served as an advisor on Middle East issues to both Republican and Democratic governments - expressed skepticism about the council's ability to act on the international stage. "We need diplomacy on the ground, not the performative creation of commissions and the involvement of a large number of countries and individuals in a process in which the majority of them will have no role", Miller said.
"The Peace Council is a concept from a distant galaxy, not a reality here on planet Earth," he continued. "The Peace Council will not be able to resolve the conflict in Sudan. It will not be able to do what American and European mediators failed to do with the ceasefire in Ukraine," Miller added.
Far-right members of Israel's ruling coalition yesterday rejected a US-backed plan for post-war governance in Gaza and criticised Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for failing to annex Palestinian territory and establish new Israeli settlements on its territory, the Guardian newspaper reported.
After the White House announced the selection of world leaders to join the Gaza Peace Council, including representatives from Turkey and Qatar – countries criticizing Israel's war in the Palestinian territory, the Israeli far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich described "Netanyahu's unwillingness to take responsibility for Gaza" as "the original sin", the British newspaper points out.
Smotrich, who is a settler in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, believes that Netanyahu should "encourage immigration and settlement (in Gaza) and thus guarantee Israel's security for many years to come", the "Guardian" also writes.
Smotrich wrote in "Ex": "The countries that inspired "Hamas" cannot be the ones to replace it". The minister probably meant Turkey and Qatar, the "Guardian" commented. "The prime minister must be firm on this issue, even if it means dealing with a conflict with our great friend and with President Trump's emissaries," Smotrich added in his publication.
Netanyahu called a meeting with his coalition partners on Sunday, which was apparently an attempt to calm tensions and consider his next move, the "Guardian" points out.
The main challenge for Netanyahu is to retain his far-right allies, whose participation in the government is key to his political survival, the British newspaper commented.
Netanyahu himself on Saturday opposed the White House plan, indicating that some of the appointments "are not coordinated with Israel and are contrary to its policy". The Israeli leader did not name specific names, but ordered his Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to contact US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the British publication also writes.
Israel has already categorically opposed giving Turkey any role in post-war Gaza. Relations between the two deteriorated sharply at the beginning of the war in October 2023, recalls "The Guardian".
V. "The Wall Street Journal" focuses on the issue of the disarmament of "Hamas" - a process that the Peace Council is expected to oversee. "Trump's plan does not contain a clear statement of exactly what this will look like," the American newspaper commented. The publication recalls that the Palestinian group agreed to hand over its heavy weapons, such as its rocket arsenal and anti-tank missiles, but continues to reject Israel's demand that it give up its light weapons. Netanyahu said that "Hamas" has about 60,000 automatic weapons.
The inclusion of Qatari and Turkish representatives in the executive council shows Gaza that the United States and Israel have not reached full agreement on the plan for the future of the Palestinian territory, commented "The Wall Street Journal". According to analysts, the decision to include Qatar and Turkey will lead to a struggle for influence over Trump and his peace plan, the American newspaper also writes.