The US President, Donald Trump, has formed a highly influential and political team for the Gaza Board of Peace, which has been established by Trump to administer the new era of rule in the war-torn territory of Palestine.
The initial executive board founding members will include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s son-in-law and former advisor Jared Kushner, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair,” according to a statement from the White House. Trump will serve as the chairman of that board.
The declarations mark a significant step in the second phase of the US-mediated solution for Gaza and embody attempts to move from a cease-fire solution towards demilitarization and the political consolidation of the Gaza Strip, which has been involved in a war between Israeli and Hamas sides for more than two years.
Who is on the board?
The seven-member founding executive board includes President Donald J. Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff; the president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga; billionaire financier and founder of ValueAct Capital, Marc Rowan; and Deputy National Security Adviser, Robert Gabriel,” said the White House.
Each participant would have been focused on a specific area known as a vital part of the redevelopment required in Gaza, anything from improving the governance structures to rebuilding the infrastructure.
The United States is committed to supporting the transition through its partnership with Israel, with the main Arab states, and with the international community,” according to a quote by the White House.
Why Tony Blair’s Involvement is Controversial
Blair’s selection is already rife with controversy throughout the Middle East. In fact, Blair was among the key players involved in the invasion of Iraq. This happened in the year 2003. The selection of Blair is already having an impact on how the Arab world looks at Blair.
In 2007, Blair resigned from politics and took up the position of an envoy for the Middle East Quartet ensemble, which comprised representatives from the US, EU, UN, and Russia. Even though he remained involved in other diplomatic initiatives, he was criticized by many Palestinians for showing overly favorable attitudes towards Israeli perspectives. He resigned from his role in 2015.
But the very sensitive appointment of Blair last year was even acknowledged by Trump, where he said he wanted to make sure that the appointee, Blair, was ‘an acceptable choice to everybody’ even as he discussed the value he had been to the region.
International leaders invited
Other than Washington, Trump has invited other foreign leaders to be part of the larger board of peace. The Prime Minister of Canada, Mark Carney, has accepted an invite, according to Canadian officials.
The presidents of Turkey and Argentina, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Javier Milei, have also been invited as founding members. The President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, is “studying” a similar invitation, according to Egyptian sources.
Trump has continuously declared that he has assembled “The Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled,” which gives another layer of political importance to the issue.
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How the territory would be governed
Most importantly, the Peace Board will not manage the running of Gaza. This is because it will be handled by a Palestinian technocratic committee comprising 15 members, which was established earlier this week and approved by the Israeli government.
This committee shall be led by Ali Sha’ath, who hails from Gaza and is a former deputy minister of the Palestinian Authority. This committee stands to ensure the reinstatement of basic services and to stabilize the life of the people until there is an effective Palestinian Authority in control.
Former UN mediator for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, will be the High Representative for the Gaza Region and will continue the coordination between the technocratic committee and the Board of Peace.
Moreover, the board lacks direct representation on the Palestinian Authority, which is a clear indication of the Israeli opposition to the participation of the PA and the political sensitiveness on which the plan is embedded.
The road that now lay ahead was fraught
Despite the involvement of major global players and financial giants in the Trump initiative in the Gaza Strip, there are many uncertainties. Indeed, the presence of Hamas in the Gaza Strip also offers another challenge to the process of demilitarization.
Although the structure of the Board of Peace begins to take shape, the success of this organization will be less reliant upon its image, and more upon its capacity to pursue multiple goals of diplomacy, security, and reconstruction in one of the most complex and perilous political environments in the world.
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