Trump launches controversial Board of Peace for Gaza

US President Donald Trump on Thursday launched his Board of Peace, initially designed to cement Gaza's rocky ceasefire but which he foresees taking a wider role worrying to other global powers, although he said it would work with the United Nations.

"Once this board is completely formed, we can do pretty much whatever we want to do. And we'll do it in conjunction with the United Nations," Trump said, adding that the UN had great potential that had not been fully utilised.

Trump, who will chair the board, invited dozens of other world leaders to join, saying he wants it to address challenges beyond the stuttering Gaza ceasefire, stirring misgivings that it could undermine the UN's role as the main platform for global diplomacy and conflict resolution.

While regional Middle East powers including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western US allies have been more cautious.

Trump says permanent members must help fund with a payment of $1 billion each, and Reuters could not immediately spot any representatives from governments of top global powers or from Israel or the Palestinian Authority at the signing ceremony.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the board's focus would be on making sure the plan for peace in Gaza was fulfilled but that it could also "serve as an example of what's possible in other parts of the world".

Global role

Apart from the US, no other permanent member of the UN Security Council - the five nations with the most say over international law and diplomacy since the end of World War Two - has yet committed to join.

Russia said late on Wednesday it was studying the proposal after Trump said it would join. President Vladimir Putin said Moscow was willing to pay $1 billion from frozen US assets in the US "to support the Palestinian people", state media said.

France declined to join. Britain said on Thursday it was not joining at present. China has not yet said whether it will do so.

The board's creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump's Gaza peace plan, and UN spokesperson Rolando Gomez said on Thursday that UN engagement with the board would only be in that context.

Few of the countries that have signed up for the board are democracies, although Israel, Argentina and Hungary, whose leaders are close allies of Trump and supporters of his approach to politics and diplomacy, have said they will join.

"There's tremendous potential with the United Nations, and I think the combination of the Board of Peace with the kind of people we have here ... could be something very, very unique for the world," said Trump, who has long disparaged the UN and other institutionsof multilateral cooperation.

Board members also include Rubio, the US Gaza negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Brittle Gaza ceasefire

Kushner, who is Trump's son-in-law, said the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire deal would address funding for reconstruction in the territory, which lies mostly in ruins, as well as disarmament by Gaza's dominant Palestinian militant group Hamas, one of the most intractable unresolved issues.

"If Hamas doesn't demilitarise, that would be what holds this plan back," Kushner said.

"The next 100 days we're going to continue to just be heads down and focused on making sure this is implemented. We continue to be focused on humanitarian aid, humanitarian shelter, but then creating the conditions to move forward."

In a sign of progress on unresolved elements of the first phase of the truce, the Palestinian technocratic committee leader Ali Shaath said the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, Gaza's main gateway, would reopen next week.

The ceasefire in Gaza, agreed in October, has sputtered for months with Israel and Hamas trading blame for repeated bursts of violence in which several Israeli soldiers and hundreds of Palestinians have been killed.

Both sides accuse each other of further violations, with Israel saying Hamas has procrastinated on returning a final body of a dead hostage and Hamas saying Israel has continued to restrict aid into Gaza despite an ongoing humanitarian disaster.

Each side rejects the other's accusations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted an invitation to join the board, the Israeli leader's office said. Palestinian factions have endorsed Trump's plan and given backing to a transitional Palestinian committee meant to administer the Gaza Strip with oversight by the board.

Even as the first phase of the truce falters, its next stage must address much tougher long-term issues that have bedevilled earlier negotiations, including Hamas disarmament, security control in Gaza and eventual Israeli withdrawal.