Seven More Nations Join Trump’s Board of Peace
Seven countries including Saudi Arabia and Turkey join Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, a new global body that critics say could challenge the UN.
According to a joint statement, seven countries, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Egypt, have said they will join US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace."
They will join Israel, which had already publicly confirmed its participation.
On Wednesday evening, Trump said that Vladimir Putin had also agreed to join – but the Russian president said his country was still considering the invitation.
The board was initially believed to have been created to help end the two-year-long conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. However, its proposed charter makes no mention of the Palestinian territories and appears to be designed to supplant the work of the United Nations.
However, Saudi Arabia said that the group of Muslim-majority countries – Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Qatar – supported the goal of strengthening a lasting ceasefire in Gaza, supporting reconstruction, and advancing what they described as a "just and lasting peace."
At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump told reporters that Putin had accepted his invitation to join. "He was invited, he accepted. Many people have accepted," Trump said.
According to Reuters, Putin immediately responded that the invitation was under consideration. He said Russia was prepared to contribute $1 billion from frozen Russian assets and that he considered the board primarily relevant to the Middle East.
It is unclear how many countries have been invited to join Trump's new organization – Canada and the UK are among them, but they have not yet publicly responded. The UAE, Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco, and Vietnam have already joined. On Wednesday, the Vatican also confirmed that Pope Leo had received an invitation. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, the Vatican's foreign secretary, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, said the Pope needed time to decide whether or not to participate.
However, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob said he had rejected the invitation because the organization "dangerously interferes in the broader international order."
A leaked document stated that the Board of Peace's charter would come into effect when three states formally agree to be bound by it, member states would be given three-year renewable terms, and permanent seats would be available for those contributing $1 billion (£740 million), it said. The charter declared the body an international organization, empowered under international law to conduct peace-building work, with Trump serving as chairman – and separately as the US representative – and having the authority to appoint members of the executive board and create or dissolve subsidiary bodies.
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Last Friday, the White House named seven members of the founding executive board, including US Senator Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
During the second phase of the plan, which includes reconstruction and demilitarization, former UN Middle East envoy Nikolay Mladenov was appointed as the board's representative in Gaza, and the board has been authorized by a UN Security Council resolution until the end of 2027.
On Saturday, Netanyahu's office said the structure of the Gaza executive board "was not coordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy."
Israeli media said the decision to include representatives from Turkey and Qatar – who, along with Egypt and the US, helped broker the ceasefire that took effect in October – was made "over Israel's head." Under the first phase of the peace plan, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire, the release of living and deceased Israeli hostages in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a partial Israeli withdrawal, and an increase in the delivery of humanitarian aid.
Israel has said it can only proceed to the second phase if Hamas hands over the body of the last remaining deceased hostage.
The second phase presents significant challenges, as Hamas has previously refused to lay down its arms without the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, and Israel has not committed to a full withdrawal from Gaza.
The ceasefire is also fragile. According to the Hamas-controlled health ministry in Gaza, more than 460 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since it came into effect, while the Israeli military says three of its soldiers have been killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.
The war began on October 7, 2023, with a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel that killed approximately 1,200 people and resulted in 251 others being taken hostage.
Israel responded to the attack by launching a military operation in Gaza, during which more than 71,550 people have been killed, according to the territory's health ministry.
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