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Donald Trump has named a “Board of Peace” to oversee the rehabilitation of postwar Gaza and said Sir Tony Blair, private equity boss Marc Rowan and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner will be among its members.
The board, which will be chaired by Trump, includes no Palestinians but does include US secretary of state Marco Rubio, US special envoy Steve Witkoff, World Bank president Ajay Banga and a US national security adviser, Robert Gabriel, as members of a “founding executive board”.
Blair, Britain’s former prime minister, and Kushner were previously engaged in Trump’s peace plans for Gaza. Rowan is the boss of Apollo Global Management, a large private equity firm, and has been heavily engaged in philanthropy in Israel.
Trump first proposed a Board of Peace in his 20-point peace plan for Gaza, the implementation of which has stalled since he brokered a tenuous ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in October.
The ceasefire ended two years of heavy bombardment in Israel’s war with Hamas, secured the release of Israeli hostages and saw an increased flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
The White House said a “National Committee for the Administration of Gaza”, led by Ali Sha’ath, a former official in the Palestinian Authority and the only Palestinian named in Trump’s plan, would be established to “oversee the restoration of core public services, the rebuilding of civil institutions, and the stabilisation of daily life in Gaza, while laying the foundation for long-term, self-sustaining governance”.
It added that Nickolay Mladenov, a former Bulgarian defence minister and UN envoy, would serve as “the High Representative for Gaza” and be an “on the ground link” between the board of peace and the committee.
According to the announcement, a separate “Gaza Executive Committee”, which includes members of the board of peace as well as a number of other figures — including Mladenov, Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan, Sigrid Kaag, UN special co-ordinator for the Middle East peace process, and Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Yakir Gabay — will be established to “support” the Office of the High Representative and the NCAG.
The White House said Aryeh Lightstone, who was instrumental in the planning and promotion of the failed aid distribution scheme known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, and Josh Gruenbaum, a former official in the US’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, would be “senior advisers” to the board of peace charged with “day-to-day strategy and operations”. The committee’s relationship to Mladenov and the NCAG was unclear.
The statement also named US military special operations commander Major General Jasper Jeffers as head of an “International Stabilisation Force”, which “will lead security operations” and “support comprehensive demilitarisation” in Gaza.
Trump had promised to announce a force staffed by soldiers from dozens of Middle Eastern and other partner nations but no country has committed military personnel to serve in Gaza. Important Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia and Jordan, have said they will not deploy their troops under any circumstances.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about who would fill the ISF’s ranks.
The White House said it would name additional members of the executive board and Gaza executive board in the coming weeks.
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