Who is on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza?

The White House announced the names of the members who will form the Trump administration’s new “Peace Board” for Gaza.

Chaired by the US president, the panel will oversee the work of a committee of Palestinian technocrats tasked with the interim administration and reconstruction of Gaza.

The White House added that each member of the “Peace Board” is expected to be responsible for a portfolio that will be “critical to the stability of Gaza.” However, it is not yet clear who will be responsible for which priorities.

So who is on the board?

Former British Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair has long been mentioned as a potential member of Trump’s “Peace Board”; The US president expressed interest in joining the board in September.

The former Labor leader was UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and led the country into the Iraq War in 2003; This means some may view his presence on the board as controversial.

After leaving office, he served as Middle East envoy to the Quartet of international powers (the United Nations, the European Union, the United States and Russia) from 2007 to 2015.

Sir Tony is the only founding member of the board who is not a US citizen.

Sir Tony has previously described Trump’s plans for Gaza as “the best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering”.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is at the center of the Trump administration’s foreign policy approach.

Before Trump’s return to office, Rubio opposed a ceasefire in Gaza, saying he wanted Israel to “destroy every element of Hamas it can capture.”

But he has since praised the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire agreement, signed in October, as the “best” and “only” plan.

Also in October, Rubio criticized the Israeli parliament’s move to annex the occupied West Bank.

US Special Representative for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, Trump’s golf partner and real estate mogul, will also be on the board.

Earlier this month, Witkoff announced the start of the second phase of Trump’s plan to end the war in Gaza, adding that it would see the reconstruction and complete demilitarization of Gaza, including the disarmament of Hamas.

He added that he expected Hamas to “fully comply with its obligations” under the agreement or face “serious consequences.”

Witkoff has been a central figure in U.S.-led efforts to negotiate a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, including a five-hour meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December.

Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law, also played a key role in the Trump administration’s foreign policy negotiations.

Alongside Witkoff, Kushner frequently worked as a U.S. mediator in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars.

In November, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss key sticking points in the peace agreement.

“If people focus on building livelihoods, Gaza’s waterfront properties could be very valuable,” Kushner said in a speech at Harvard University in 2024.

Billionaire Marc Rowan is the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a large private equity firm headquartered in New York.

Rowan was seen as a candidate to become US treasury secretary in Trump’s second term.

World Bank president Ajay Banga has advised many senior US politicians during his long career, including President Barack Obama.

Born in India in 1959, Banga became a US citizen in 2007 and later served as CEO of Mastercard for more than a decade.

Former US President Joe Biden nominated him to head the World Bank in 2023.

US national security advisor Robert Gabriel will be the last member of the “founding board”.

Gabriel has been working with Trump since the 2016 presidential campaign and soon became a special assistant to Stephen Miller, one of Trump’s current key advisers, according to PBS.

In the statement made by the White House, it was also stated that Bulgarian politician and former UN Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov will be the board’s representative in Gaza.

He will oversee the National Committee for Gaza Administration (NCAG), a separate 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with managing the day-to-day administration of post-war Gaza.

NCAG will be chaired by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA), which governs parts of the occupied West Bank that are not under Israeli control, and will chair the new committee.