(The Epoch Times)—On the second and final day of his visit on Jan. 22, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the Board of Peace charter, officially launching a new international organization tasked with overseeing the peace process between Israel and Hamas to end the war in Gaza.
“This board is the chance to be one of the most consequential bodies ever created, and it’s my enormous honor to serve as its chairman,” Trump said before the signing ceremony of the charter.
Founding members of the board who were at the event include leaders or representatives from Bahrain, Morocco, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The White House on Jan. 16 named several members of the Trump administration, as well as international leaders, to positions within the Board of Peace, which aims to provide strategic insight, mobilize international resources, and ensure accountability during Gaza’s transition and reconstruction.
Trump will chair the board, which will be tasked with overseeing the next phase in Gaza. Dozens of countries have been invited to join.
Members will be tasked with managing the Gaza Strip’s “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization,” according to the White House.
During a Jan. 20 White House press conference, Trump said the Board of Peace might end up replacing the United Nations.
“I wish the United Nations could do more. I wish we didn’t need a Board of Peace,” Trump told reporters. “The U.N. just hasn’t been very helpful. I’m a big fan of the U.N. potential, but it has never lived up to its potential.”
Despite criticizing the U.N., Trump didn’t call for the dissolution of the international body.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair are among those tapped to serve on an executive board for the Board of Peace. Others on the executive board are private equity executive Marc Rowan, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, and U.S. deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel.
The Board of Peace will include a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, led by Palestinian Authority official Ali Abdel Hamid Shaath.
Nikolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat and former U.N. envoy to the Middle East, has also been named to serve as the high representative for Gaza. This role entails acting as a link between the Board of Peace and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza.
As part of the peace process, Hamas has agreed to disarm.
During his remarks to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said failure to comply would result in severe consequences, saying Hamas will “be blown away.”
“We have 59 countries that are part of that whole peace deal,” Trump said during his speech. “And they want to come in and take out Hamas. They want to come in. They want to do whatever they can. There’s a problem with Hezbollah in Lebanon. And we’ll see what happens there.”
Trump is scheduled to travel back to Washington after wrapping up his meetings in the Alpine village.
Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.
