Trump says Board of Peace meant to oversee Gaza reconstruction ‘might’ replace UN

By Jennifer Hansler, Kylie Atwood, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump’s suggestion Tuesday that his Board of Peace “might” replace the United Nations is likely to compound concerns that the body meant to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza — and that he will indefinitely chair — will instead become a vehicle for him to attempt to supersede the body established 80 years ago to maintain global peace.

Before Trump’s comments, some diplomats already had myriad concerns over the board’s possible membership and the fact a permanent seat is up for sale at $1 billion. Trump made the remarks before heading to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he faces mounting anger from NATO members over his insistence that the US should own Greenland.

The White House on Friday announced a “founding Executive Board,” including Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and former British prime minister Tony Blair.

And according to the charter draft, a copy of which was obtained by CNN, Trump will serve as indefinite chairman of the board, possibly holding the post beyond his second term as president. Trump will be replaced only due to “voluntary resignation or as a result of incapacity, as determined by a unanimous vote of the Executive Board.” A future US president can appoint or designate the US representative to the board in addition to Trump, a US official said.

Trump has sent invitations in recent days to dozens of countries to join and is expected to host a signing ceremony in Davos on Thursday. A senior administration official said around 35 of the approximately 50 countries invited to join that ceremony are expected to attend. The official did not provide further details.

Questions remain about which countries will actually join the board. Although some, such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, have confirmed their participation, others have yet to commit — and some, such as France, have declined.

Russia and China invited

Russia is among the nations invited to join, raising alarm about how a country actively waging war could be involved in an effort to secure peace. China and Belarus have also been invited.

Trump told CNN on Wednesday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “accepted” his invitation to join the Board of Peace. He acknowledged that Putin’s participation would be “controversial” but defended inviting “people that get the job done.”

“So he was invited,” Trump said. “He’s accepted.”

But at a meeting Wednesday of the Russian Security Council, Putin did not commit to joining the board but said his Foreign Ministry would “study the documents” and “consult with our strategic partners.” He also floated using Russian assets frozen in the US to pay the $1 billion fee for a permanent seat and for further reconstruction of Gaza.

“Putin would certainly use Russia’s membership on the Board of Peace to undermine the UN and, by extension, sow further divisions in America’s alliances,” said Robert Wood, a former deputy US ambassador to the UN.

“Putin is not a man of peace, and I don’t think he belongs in any organization with peace in the name,” British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he has accepted Trump’s invitation to join the Board of Peace, even though he has openly fumed at the inclusion of Turkish and Qatari officials on the executive board for the implementation of the 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan.

There are major concerns among some officials that the board’s broad charter is an attempt to replace the work of the UN, an organization that Trump has consistently berated. The charter draft, which was sent along with the invitations to join, does not even reference Gaza.

The charter describes the Board of Peace as “an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.”

Trump on Tuesday seemed to confirm that intention as he took a swipe at the UN, saying his board “might” replace the international body.

“The UN just hasn’t been very helpful. I’m a big fan of the UN’s potential, but it has never lived up to its potential,” Trump told reporters during a White House press briefing. “The UN should have settled every one of the wars that I settled. I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them.”

On Wednesday, UN deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq said the organization “will continue to relentlessly work for peace.”

He noted that “there have been any number of organizations … that have coexisted with the UN over the 80 years that the UN’s been in existence.”

“It’s too early to tell what the Board of Peace will look like,” Haq said. “One thing we are aware of is, of course, that the Security Council has endorsed the Board of Peace strictly for the work on Gaza, and, of course, we continue to abide by that resolution.” He referred to a UN Security Council resolution passed last year that codified Trump’s 20-point plan on Gaza.

Allies voice concerns

France and Norway have declined to become members of the board for now, in part citing questions about how it would operate in conjunction with the UN.

“The American proposal raises a number of questions that requires further dialogue with the United States,” Norwegian State Secretary Kristoffer Thoner said in a statement. “Norway will therefore not join the proposed arrangements for the Board of Peace, and will therefore not attend a signing ceremony in Davos.”

Thoner noted that “for Norway, it is important how this proposal is linked to established structures as the UN, and to our international commitments.”

“When you read the charter, it doesn’t only apply to Gaza, whereas the resolution that we had voted (on) … at the Security Council of the United Nations was really targeting Gaza and the Middle East,” French Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pascal Confavreux told CNN. “Point two is that it raises very important concern regarding the rationality with the charter of the United Nations.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she would not be participating in the signing ceremony Thursday. “There is a constitutional compatibility issue because reading the statute revealed some elements of incompatibility with our Constitution,” she said.

“There is work that needs to be done, but my position remains one of openness,” she told the Rai 1 television channel.

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee said her country would give the invitation “careful consideration,” but she noted that the body proposed by Trump “would have a mandate wider than the implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan.”

“The United Nations has a unique mandate to maintain international peace and security, and the legitimacy to bring nations together to find common solutions to shared challenges. While it may be imperfect, the UN and the primacy of international law is more important now than ever,” she said in a statement.

On Tuesday, the UN’s top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, said Trump’s Board of Peace will not replace his organization.

Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator for the US, cast doubt on the Board of Peace’s ability to replace the work of the UN.

“The whole thing is tethered to a galaxy far, far away, not to the realities back here on planet Earth,” he told CNN.

“I just don’t see how you instrumentalize it,” he said. “Conflicts are resolved not by external organizations, but by mediators working with two parties in confrontation and conflict.”

Miller noted that even with the UN’s “flaws and dysfunction, how do you replace or compete with an organization that has been in existence since 1946, which has a Security Council with five permanent members, which has done a lot of very good humanitarian work and peacekeeping work through the decades?”

“You can’t rival this organization,” he said. “It’s too big, it’s too durable, and it’s too integral to so many different pieces of the international landscape.”

Wood noted that any attempt for the Board of Peace to replace the UN “would certainly be opposed by most UN member states.”

“Whether the (Board of Peace) has any future internationally as a conflict-resolution mechanism will depend on what it can accomplish in Gaza,” he told CNN.

$1 billion for a permanent seat

Members of the board will serve for three-year terms. If they want a permanent seat, it comes with a steep cost — a contribution of $1 billion. According to the US official, the $1 billion commitment is not an entry fee, and there is no mandatory funding obligation for each country. The official said countries that “make significant contributions to projects and want to have proper oversight can stay involved.”

“Not every country that has the ability to fork out $1 billion is necessarily best-suited to oversee peace and security in the international arena,” Wood said.

Some diplomats said the steep fee was a matter their country would need to study.

“We would like to join, but we have to study it because it requires a financial commitment which is a fairly high amount of us,” one ambassador from a country invited to join said of the fee for a permanent seat. “This will require a substantial study from our economy team and the budgetary process.”

A US official claimed the funds will go toward rebuilding Gaza. US officials have had early discussions with contracting companies about rebuilding efforts, but none of those plans have been finalized or even sketched out, two sources familiar with the discussions said.

Miller said the fee is akin to joining Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

“I can’t imagine anyone who has any semblance of a democratic process being able to join this and overcome the legal and political obstacles of surrendering your own participation to Trump’s veto, let alone shelling out a billion bucks to go beyond a three-year membership,” he said.

Still, some countries that were not invited to join are privately expressing interest in participating, and they are even considering offering to pay the steep $1 billion fee to become a part of the board, according to a source familiar with those discussions.

CNN’s Kevin Liptak, Ivana Kottasová and Hira Humayun contributed to this report.

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