Israeli PM Netanyahu agrees to join Trump peace commission

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s Peace Council.

A statement from his office said Netanyahu would be a member of “the council, which is composed of world leaders.”

The committee was initially thought to be designed to help end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. But its proposed charter makes no mention of the Palestinian territories and appears designed to replace the functions of the United Nations.

The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain also agreed to join, as did Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam. Many others also expressed reservations.

It’s unclear how many countries have been invited to join Trump’s new agency – Canada, Russia, Türkiye and the UK are among them but have yet to respond publicly.

Norway said it would not join because the current proposal “raises many questions”, while France and Sweden said they would do the same.

According to a copy of the charter leaked to the media, member states will be given renewable three-year terms, but they can gain permanent seats if $1bn (£740m) is provided to the board.

The peace commission will be “an international organization dedicated to promoting stability, restoring reliable and legitimate governance and ensuring lasting peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict,” the document said. It added that it would “undertake such peacebuilding functions in accordance with international law”.

Trump will serve as chairman but also “solely” as the U.S. representative. A U.S. official said Trump could serve as chairman “until he resigns,” but a future U.S. president could choose a new representative.

As chairman, he will have “exclusive authority to create, amend or dissolve affiliated entities as necessary or appropriate to carry out the Peace Council’s mission,” the document said.

U.S. officials said he would also select “leaders of global stature” to serve on the executive committee for two years, which would help achieve the peace council’s mission.

Last Friday, White House appoints seven members of founding executive committee. They include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkopf, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Trump also appointed Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former U.N. Middle East envoy, as the Peace Council’s representative in Gaza during the second phase of Trump’s peace plan, which is supposed to see the reconstruction and demilitarization of the territory, including the disarmament of Hamas, and the full withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Mladenov will serve as a link to the Palestinian technocratic government, which will “oversee the restoration of core public services, the reconstruction of civilian institutions and the stabilization of daily life.”

The White House said a separate Gaza executive council would help shore up the technocratic government.

Vitkov, Kushner, Blair, Rowan and Mladenov will serve alongside Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Egyptian intelligence chief Hassan Rashad, Qatar’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Ali al-Sawadi, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation Rem Al Hashemi, billionaire Israeli real estate developer Yakir Gabe and Dutch politician and United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Sigrid Kaag.

On Saturday, Netanyahu’s office said the composition of Gaza’s executive council “is not coordinated with Israel and goes against its policies.”

Israeli media said that representatives from Türkiye and Qatar, as well as Egypt and the United States, participated in promoting the ceasefire agreement to take effect in October, and that this decision “went beyond the scope of Israel.”

Under the first phase of the peace plan, Hamas and Israel agreed to a ceasefire, an exchange of Israeli hostages in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, a partial Israeli troop withdrawal and an increase in the delivery of humanitarian aid.

The second phase faces major challenges, as Hamas has previously refused to give up its weapons without establishing an independent Palestinian state, and Israel has not committed to a full withdrawal from Gaza.

The ceasefire is also fragile. According to the Hamas health ministry in Gaza, more than 460 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since the bill came into effect, while the Israeli military said three Israeli soldiers were killed in Palestinian attacks during the same period.

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, which killed about 1,200 people and took another 251 hostage.

Israel responded to the attack with a military operation in Gaza that killed more than 71,550 people, according to the Gaza Strip’s health ministry.