WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (APP): US President Donald Trump will ask countries that want to join his “Board of Peace”, which oversee Gaza’s governance and reconstruction, to pay $1 billion for a permanent seat, according to reports published by Bloomberg news service and and The Atlantic magazine.
Meanwhile, Pakistan and five more countries said Sunday they have received invitation to serve on the board.
A draft charter seen by both outlets showed that Trump will serve as the executive board’s inaugural chairman, who will approve which member states can join on the board. The board will become official after three member states agree to the charter.
“Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter’s entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman,” the draft reads, according to Bloomberg. “The three-year membership term shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter’s entry into force.”
Member states will be able to vote on board decisions, but Trump will have sole authority to approve them, the outlets reported.
What the $1 billion for membership will fund remains unclear. The Atlantic reported that the draft charter does not address where membership fees go, only that funding for board expenses will be “through voluntary funding from Member States, other States, organizations, or other sources.”
The draft charter’s preamble states that the board will “depart from approaches and institutions that have too often failed” and will operate as “a more nimble and effective international peace-building body, which the magazine indicated was a dismissal of the United Nations.
The draft charter also makes no mention of the Gaza Strip, The Atlantic wrote.
The board was designed to oversee and implement Trump’s 20-point peace plan in Gaza set in place after Israel and Hamas reached a ceasefire in the two-year-long Israel war in the Gaza Strip.
Trump recently announced that Phase 2 of the peace plan had begun, which requires Hamas to disarm and Israel to pull back its forces out of Gaza.
Trump said that the board was formed this week, later announcing that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, a controversial figure, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and billionaire investors Robert Gabriel and Marc Rowan will be on the board.
The White House invited the presidents of Turkey, Argentina and Egypt to join the board. Argentinian President Javier Milei said he accepted the invitation, sharing a digital copy of the invitation in a post on the social platform X. He called it “an honour” to be invited on the board as a “Founding Member.”
Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty confirmed that President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi received the letter. Turkish Communications Director Burhanettin Duran also confirmed that Trump invited Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The White House also invited several other foreign officials and politicians from Turkey, Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bulgaria and the Netherlands, along with Cypriot-Israeli real estate magnate Yakir Gabay and Dutch politician Sigrid Kaag, the current U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.