10 minutes agoShareSaveClaire KeenanShareSave<\/p>\n
The White House has released the names of the members<\/a> who will be part of the senior executive working with his new "Board of Peace" for Gaza. <\/p>\n With the US president as chair, the founding "Executive Board" will oversee the work of a committee of technocrats tasked with the temporary governance of Gaza – and its reconstruction.<\/p>\n Each member is expected to be in charge of a portfolio that will be "critical to Gaza's stabilisation", the White House has said. But it is not yet clear who will be responsible for which priorities. <\/p>\n There will also be a separate "Gaza Executive Board" – responsible for overseeing all on-the-ground work of yet another administrative group, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG). <\/p>\n Meanwhile, the Board of Peace is expected to sit above these two executive bodies and comprise a number of world leaders. <\/p>\n No women and no Palestinians have been announced so far at the top level, but the White House said additional members will be announced over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n So, who is on the Executive Board?<\/p>\n Former UK Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair had long been talked about as a potential member of Trump's "Board of Peace", with the US president confirming back in September that he had expressed an interest in joining the body<\/a>.<\/p>\n The former Labour Party leader was the UK prime minister from 1997 to 2007 and took the country into the Iraq War in 2003, a decision which means some may view his presence on the board as controversial. <\/p>\n After leaving office, he served as Middle East envoy for the Quartet of international powers – the United Nations, European Union, US and Russia – from 2007 to 2015. <\/p>\n Sir Tony is the only founding member of the executive board who is not a US citizen.<\/p>\n He previously described Trump's plans for Gaza as the "best chance of ending two years of war, misery and suffering".<\/p>\n In a statement, Sir Tony said he was "honoured" to be named on the executive board, and thanked president Trump for his leadership in establishing the group.<\/p>\n He will also serve on the Gaza Executive Board.<\/p>\n As US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio is central to the Trump administration's approach to foreign policy. <\/p>\n Before Trump's return to office, Rubio had spoken out against a ceasefire<\/a> in Gaza, saying that he wanted Israel "to destroy every element of Hamas they can get their hands on". <\/p>\n But he has since praised the first phase of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire<\/a> deal signed in October as the "best" and "only" plan. <\/p>\n Also in October, Rubio criticised a move by the Israeli parliament towards annexation of the occupied West Bank<\/a>.<\/p>\n US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, a real estate magnate and golf partner to Trump, will also serve on the Gaza Executive Board.<\/p>\n Earlier this month, Witkoff announced the start of phase two of Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, adding that it would see the reconstruction and full demilitarisation<\/a> of Gaza – including the disarmament of Hamas.<\/p>\n He added that he expects Hamas to "comply fully with its obligations" under the deal, or face "serious consequences". <\/p>\n Witkoff has been a central figure in US-led efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, including holding a five-hour meeting<\/a> with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December.<\/p>\n Jared Kushner, the US president's son-in-law, has also played a key role in the Trump administration's foreign policy negotiations. <\/p>\n Alongside Witkoff, Kushner has often worked as a US mediator for the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars, and he will now also serve on the Gaza Executive Board.<\/p>\n In November, he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss key sticking points in the peace deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n At a talk at Harvard University in 2024, Kushner said<\/a> "Gaza's waterfront property could be very valuable… if people would focus on building up livelihoods."<\/p>\n Billionaire Marc Rowan is the CEO of Apollo Global Management, a large private equity firm headquartered in New York. <\/p>\n Rowan was seen as a contender to become US treasury secretary for Trump's second term. He will also be a member of the Gaza Executive Board.<\/p>\n Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, has advised a number of senior US politicians, including President Barack Obama, during his lengthy career. <\/p>\n Born in India in 1959, Banga became a US citizen in 2007, and later served as the CEO of Mastercard for more than a decade.<\/p>\n Former US President Joe Biden nominated him to lead the World Bank in 2023<\/a>. <\/p>\n Robert Gabriel, a US national security adviser, will be the final member of the "founding executive board". <\/p>\n Gabriel has worked with Trump since his 2016 presidential campaign, shortly after which, according to PBS, he became a special assistant to Stephen Miller, another of Trump's key current advisers.<\/p>\n While not on the Executive Board, Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former UN Middle East envoy, will be the Board of Peace's representative on the ground in Gaza, the White House has said.<\/p>\n He will sit on the Gaza Executive board and oversee a separate 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), charged with managing the day-to-day governance of post-war Gaza.<\/p>\n The NCAG will be led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority (PA) which governs parts of the occupied West Bank not under Israeli control.<\/p>\n Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that members of the executive boards were members of the Board of Peace. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n <\/a>Tony Blair<\/a>Israel-Gaza war<\/a>United States<\/a>Middle East<\/a>Israel<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Who is on Trump's 'Board of Peace' overseeing Gaza's reconstruction?10 minutes agoShareSaveClaire KeenanShareSaveReuters \/ Getty Images \/ EPAAjay Banga, Jared Kushner and Steve Wit…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":7631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bbc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7630"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7630\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp2.niviyo.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Sir Tony Blair <\/h2>\n
Marco Rubio<\/h2>\n
Steve Witkoff<\/h2>\n
Jared Kushner<\/h2>\n
Marc Rowan<\/h2>\n
Ajay Banga<\/h2>\n
Robert Gabriel<\/h2>\n
Nickolay Mladenov<\/h2>\n
Pitfalls loom as Trump's Gaza peace plan enters second phase<\/h2>\n
Israel moves Yellow Line deeper into Gaza, satellite images show<\/h2>\n
Ajay Banga: world must focus on creating jobs<\/h2>\n