Troops for Gaza and money top agenda as Trump’s Board of Peace meets | US foreign policy

As Donald Trump unveiled the interim Peace Board in Washington to intense international scrutiny, the United States has proposed commanding a multinational force in post-war Gaza with troops from Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Morocco.

The US plan would require the complete disarmament of Hamas and Israeli support; This has tempered expectations that the Trump-friendly committee of autocrats and right-wing allies could deliver on his vision of ending the conflict and rebuilding Gaza as a “riviera.”

That didn’t stop the board from proposing a major peacekeeping and reconstruction mission in Gaza at the frenetic opening summit, which saw Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev discuss the Trump peace prize and Fifa president Gianni Infantino don a red US hat before announcing the partnership with the $1 billion-per-seat committee.

In his opening speech, Trump said the US would allocate $10bn (£740m) into a fund to rebuild Gaza; He said that this small amount was “to realize his dream of bringing lasting harmony to a region tortured by centuries of war, suffering and slaughter.”

Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates will collectively contribute $7 billion, the UN $2 billion and world football coordinating body FIFA $75 million.

Describing the meeting, Trump said, “We will fix Gaza, we will make Gaza very successful and safe.” “And maybe we’ll take it a step further; if we see the hotspots around the world, we can probably do that very easily. This is a tremendous group of powerful people.”

Major General Jasper Jeffers III, the US officer appointed to command the future international stabilization force (ISF), said the board plans to deploy 20,000 troops to five different areas of Gaza, starting with Rafah.

He said that his long-term goal is to recruit 12,000 police officers, and that Egypt and Jordan have committed to training officers in the future. Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto said his country was ready to deploy as many as 8,000 soldiers “or more if necessary.”

The Guardian has revealed that the Trump administration plans to build a 5,000-man military base in Gaza on more than 350 acres, according to the board’s contract records.

Aid workers said the National Committee for Gaza Administration, an organization set up by the board, was frustrated by the lack of guidance, and an ISF office in the area remained vacant.

It is unclear what the ISF’s mandate or rules of engagement will be; This means that the absence of a political solution will frustrate efforts to rebuild the region.

Cypriot-Israeli billionaire Yakir Gabay, who heads the board’s planned reconstruction efforts, announced plans to remove more than 70 million tons of rubble and unexploded ordnance and turn the Gaza coastline into “a new Mediterranean Riviera with 200 hotels and potential islands.” He said the plan would be subject to the complete disarmament of Hamas.

The body was criticized as a shadow of the UN, and leading European allies such as Britain, France and Germany refused to join it. The Vatican announced this week that it would not attend.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is under pressure from his right-wing coalition allies to maintain a hard line on Gaza, did not attend the meeting. Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar emphasized Israel’s security concerns and said the plan included “disarmament of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, demilitarization of the Gaza Strip, and de-radicalization of Palestinian society.” He said: “This is the first plan that addresses the root of the problem.”

In his opening speech, Trump repeated his hype about resolving eight wars since coming to power, said he should not support foreign candidates, and then backed Hungary’s Viktor Orbán in the upcoming election. He also joked about Secretary of State Marco Rubio renaming his D.C. meeting place the Peace Institute in his honor.

The panel met as the United States is massing forces in the Middle East, including two aircraft carriers and dozens of fighter jets, for a potential attack on Iran that could dwarf last summer’s attacks on Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Addressing world leaders and delegates, especially from the Middle East and Asia, Trump said that the USA brought peace to the Middle East by attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities and now “we will see where this goes.”

“Now we may have to take it a step further, or we may not,” he said. “Maybe we’ll make a deal. You’ll probably find out in the next 10 days.”

“There are good talks going on… It has been proven over the years that it is not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran. We have to make a meaningful deal, otherwise bad things will happen. We have to make a meaningful deal.”