ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace (BoP), the Foreign Office announced on Wednesday, as Islamabad aims to contribute to stability in Gaza.
The decision has been taken as part of Pakistan’s ongoing efforts to support the implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan under the framework of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2803, read the statement issued by the FO.
The invitation was extended last week after US President Trump’s administration contacted global figures to join the board and related bodies overseeing governance and reconstruction in post-war Gaza.
Trump is set to formally announce the first charter of his so-called “Board of Peace”, a body for resolving international conflicts with a $1-billion price tag for permanent membership.
The board, which Trump will launch in Davos, Switzerland, on Thursday, was originally conceived to oversee the rebuilding of Gaza. But a draft of the charter seen by AFP does not appear to limit its role to the Palestinian territory.
The FO, in today’s statement, read Pakistan expressed hope that the establishment of the Board of Peace would pave the way for concrete steps towards a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, a significant scale-up of humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, and the reconstruction of the war-torn territory.
The FO said Islamabad also hopes that these efforts would ultimately lead to the realisation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination through a credible and time-bound political process, in line with international legitimacy and relevant UN resolutions.
According to the statement, this process should result in the establishment of an independent, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Pakistan reaffirmed its commitment to playing a constructive role within the Board of Peace to help achieve these objectives and to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.
The US-brokered October deal has not progressed beyond the first-phase ceasefire, under which major fighting stopped, some Israeli forces pulled back, and Hamas freed hostages in return for Palestinian detainees and convicted prisoners.
Israel has continued violating the ceasefire, with more than 460 Palestinians killed in clashes since October.
Under future phases whose details have yet to be hammered out, Hamas is supposed to disarm, Israeli forces withdraw further, and an internationally backed administration is installed to rebuild the ruined, densely populated territory.
But no timetable has been set to implement the plan.
‘Board of Peace might replace UN’
A day earlier, Trump suggested that his Board of Peace “might” replace the United Nations, but said, “I believe you got to let the UN continue because the potential is so great,” he added.
He said, “you got to let the UN continue,” when asked about his plans for a so-called “Board of Peace” that has alarmed international experts.
“The UN just hasn’t been very helpful. I am a big fan of the UN’s potential but it has never lived up to its potential,” Trump said in a briefing.
The White House on Friday named some individuals who will sit on the board, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorised the so-called “Board of Peace” and countries working with it to establish an international stabilisation force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian group Hamas had signed off.
Observers say such a board could undermine the United Nations. Many rights experts and advocates have also said that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s affairs resembled a colonial structure, while Blair’s involvement has been criticised due to his role in the Iraq war and the history of British imperialism in the Middle East.
