The US is planning to hold a signing ceremony for President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace later this week, as it seeks to jumpstart phase two of his Gaza peace plan while also turning the nascent international oversight body as the address for conflict resolution around the globe.
The signing ceremony is scheduled to be held on Thursday at 10:30 a.m. on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, according to a copy of the invitation circulating online whose authenticity was confirmed by a US official.
It’s unclear how many leaders will participate in the ceremony, though, amid mounting discomfort with Washington’s apparent effort to use the Board of Peace to usurp the United Nations.
The panel for world leaders headed by Trump was initially presented as one that would exclusively oversee the postwar management of Gaza, and that was what the UN Security Council voted to give it a two-year mandate to do in November.
But the charter obtained by The Times of Israel makes no mention of Gaza and appears to take a swipe at the UN, saying that the new board should have “the courage to depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed.”
The document was attached to invitations to join the board that were sent to dozens of world leaders on Friday. Since then, the leaders of Albania, Australia, Belarus, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Jordan, Pakistan, Paraguay, Poland, Russia, Singapore, Thailand, Turkey, and Uzbekistan confirmed receiving an invitation, while only Argentina, Hungary, Morocco, and Vietnam announced decisions to accept the offer.
President Isaac Herzog is slated to attend the forum, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is not. Netanyahu confirmed having received an invitation to join the Board of Peace on Monday, but he has criticized Washington’s decision to place senior representatives from Turkey and Qatar on the Board of Peace’s operational arm for Gaza called the Gaza Executive Committee.
It’s therefore unclear whether he’ll want to legitimize the latter panel’s makeup by joining the Board of Peace, which is technically an umbrella body, even if it is expected to play a marginal role in Gaza-related decision-making.
Amid Israel’s frustration over the makeup of the consequential Gaza Executive Committee, the Ynet news site reported on Monday that a small group of senior cabinet ministers decided a day earlier against reopening the Rafah Crossing between Gaza and Egypt, bucking US demands that the gate resume operating as envisioned by Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the Gaza war.
Israel has argued that it shouldn’t reopen Rafah in both directions before Hamas agrees to disarm and returns the body of the final Israeli hostage, Ran Gvili.
Meanwhile, several key allies reacted coolly to the Board of Peace charter’s stipulation that members pay $1 billion if they want to receive a permanent spot on the panel after an initial three-year term.
“At this stage, France cannot accept,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Monday during a debate with French lawmakers, noting that the board’s charter goes beyond the scope of rebuilding and running post-war Gaza endorsed by the United Nations
He added that it is “incompatible with France’s international commitments and in particular its membership in the United Nations, which obviously cannot be called into question under any circumstances.”
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