Donald Trump on Thursday said the US would commit $10bn to his Board of Peace as he inaugurated the controversial body at a meeting where many traditional US allies were absent.
The US president also claimed Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan and Kuwait had committed $7bn more for Gaza relief.
“I want to thank every nation that helped us achieve this monumental breakthrough, saving countless lives and really bringing peace and bringing the concept of peace,” Trump said. “We have peace in the Middle East . . . The war in Gaza is over.”
The board was conceived to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, but US officials have suggested it could rival the UN while the White House has promoted it as the answer to decades of conflict in the Middle East.
Joined by leaders of increasingly prominent US allies including Kazakhstan, Indonesia and Azerbaijan, the Trump administration played a promotional video produced by football’s governing body Fifa that proclaimed a “new dawn for Gaza”.
The video featured AI-generated images of green parks, futuristic high rises and residences with glass balconies. The leaders of Canada, the UK, Australia and France did not attend.
Trump has cast the board as a collective guarantor of Gaza’s redevelopment after he brokered an October ceasefire to end two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
But the concept has drawn fire for its broad exclusion of Palestinians and its failure to address critical issues such as Israel’s continued occupation, bombardment and blockade of Gaza and a clear plan to disarm the militant group Hamas.
On stage at the building formerly known as the US Institute of Peace — renamed the Donald J Trump Institute of Peace — the president congratulated participants ranging from the president of Paraguay to his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Tony Blair, the former UK prime minister, for their “breakthrough”.
Along with the financial pledges, Egypt and Jordan would train a future Palestinian police force to secure Gaza, Trump said. Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania had committed to sending potentially thousands of troops to help secure the enclave if necessary.
“Fifa will be helping to raise a total of $75mn for projects in Gaza, and I think they’re soccer-related,” Trump added.
The promotional video, the latest in a series of such productions on Gaza displayed by Trump and his senior officials, showed images that Palestinians say are profoundly at odds with reality on the ground in the strip.
Within the enclave, more than 500 people have been killed in the four months since the ceasefire, while children sheltering in makeshift tents have continued to die from cold and complications from malnutrition.
“It feels surreal to watch somebody talk about you, but you’re not in the conversation, and they’re making plans,” said Hani Almadhoun, the Palestinian-American founder of the Gaza Soup Kitchen, who was not in attendance.
Ali Shaath, who chairs the US-created National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, represented the sole voice of Palestinians in the room.
“We are operating in extremely difficult conditions,” he said. “Humanitarian needs are acute.”
The meeting was also emblematic of the new world order that Trump has sought to cultivate, in which peace, trade and the exchange of money are intertwined.
In a rambling 47-minute address on Thursday, Trump emphasised the benefits of being in his favour, the power of his office — and the risks of ignoring his threats.
The meeting comes as the president is amassing the largest military build-up in the Middle East since the 2003 US invasion of Iraq and threatening strikes on Iran in an attempt to push Tehran to make concessions on its nuclear programme, its ballistic missiles and its support for regional militant groups.
If Iran failed to make a deal, “bad things will happen”, he said on Thursday.
But good things happened to those he likes, he noted.
“You know, I’ve had a very good record of endorsing candidates within the United States, but now I endorse foreign leaders,” he said, pointing to the Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán, seated on stage.
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, seated nearby, had been “a little behind in the polls” until Trump endorsed him, and then “ended up winning in a landslide”, Trump added.
Now major world powers had the opportunity to take part in “the most prestigious board ever put together”, Trump said.
“I believe it’s the most consequential board. Certainly in terms of power and in terms of prestige, there’s never been anything close.”
Hungary and Bulgaria were the only EU nations to join the board as founding members.
Most EU states have rejected the invitation, where a $1bn fee secures lifetime membership. European leaders have worried the Trump-led entity could usurp the role of the UN.
“As long as there is ambiguity about [the board’s] scope, France cannot participate, quite simply,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
But Trump suggested eventually “everybody” would be compelled to join. “You can’t play cute with me,” he said.
Recommended
Dubravka Šuica, the bloc’s commissioner for the Mediterranean, who chose to attend Thursday’s meeting as an observer, described the board as “very pragmatic” in an interview with the FT. She defended her attendance while cautioning that the funds pledged were still “not enough” for the reconstruction of Gaza.
“I think that our generation has a responsibility to resolve” the conflict, she said.
On funds pledged through the board, Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, said the bank would serve as “a limited trustee” for the new Gaza Reconstruction and Development Fund, which will receive the donations. Under the board’s direction, the fund will then “disperse the money for reconstruction and development projects in Gaza”, Banga said.
Additional reporting by Neri Zilber in Tel Aviv