US seeks to quell fears that Trump's 'Board of Peace' will replace UN

By Magdalena Del Valle

 

The Trump administration is seeking to tamp down concerns that its Board of Peace aims to supplant the UN or have a remit extending beyond the Gaza Strip. Its own draft charter suggests otherwise. 

In a Senate hearing on Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the “primary and sole focus of that board right now” is to administer successive phases of the ceasefire plan that ended the fighting between Israel and Hamas militants in Gaza. 

But he also reiterated the administration’s longstanding grievances against the UN. “This is not a replacement for the UN, but the UN has served very little purpose in the case of Gaza,” Rubio said.

 

 

Rubio was responding to questions from Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz, who criticised the administration for failing to provide information on the board and asked Rubio to commit “to informing us about what the heck this is.”

 

That confusion is shared by US allies in Europe, leaders of international organisations and experts, who have expressed befuddlement about the board’s true intent as its outlines have taken shape. In Davos last week, Trump convened the group’s first members, including Belarus, Azerbaijan and Hungary, and said on social media it would be “the most prestigious Board of Leaders ever assembled, at any time.”

 

At the same time, allies such as the UK, France and other members of the European Union were concerned enough to stay away. Their fears were fueled by the fact that the board’s draft charter doesn’t even mention Gaza. 

 

Instead, it dubs the Board of Peace an organisation — led by Trump — that “seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

 

That broad language has stoked anxiety among other nations that the board is meant to be a bid by Trump to set up an alternative to the UN, just at the time that he’s withdrawn from dozens of its agencies including, earlier in January, the World Health Organisation. 

 

One senior British official, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said the UK is working with allies to ensure that the future of Gaza remains the board’s primary focus. European allies are also asking Arab nations to lobby Trump for changes.

 

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva also tried to get the US to pare back the board’s ambitions and focus more on Gaza. 

 

“While the mandate of the executive board in respect of Gaza is quite clear, the wider debates in international diplomacy about what is the Board of Peace and how’s it going to work that hasn’t happened yet,” David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee and a former UK Foreign Secretary, said on Bloomberg’s The Mishal Husain Show.

 

The Board of Peace is a core element of Trump’s 20-point plan that helped broker a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas last year. Initially, the White House described it as a narrow oversight body to help guide Gaza through disarmament and a technocratic transition — and it won UN support along with the broader peace process. 

 

With few details worked out, Trump’s team got the UN blessing for the board with a Security Council resolution in November. And last week, the State Department instructed US diplomats to suggest it isn’t meant to replace the UN but complement it. 

 

“It’s hard to see why it would survive” after Trump leaves office, said Stephen Schlesinger, a fellow with the Century Foundation, a progressive think tank. He called the board a “vanity project.”

 

Trump lashed out at Group of Seven allies who have shunned it — threatening tariffs against France, and rescinding an invite to Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. Trump did not invite Denmark, whose territory of Greenland he has said numerous times he wants to seize. 

 

One UN ambassador, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said the fear among some diplomats is the board could be bad for Gaza in the long term if it implements a plan that doesn’t have Palestinian interests at heart.

 

“If the Board of Peace itself fails, there’s a big question mark about what implications that can have on the peace process in Gaza,” said Maya Ungar, UN analyst at the International Crisis Group.