Former UK leader Blair joins Carney and Rubio on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza

By Kevin Liptak, Paula Newton, CNN

(CNN) — Former British prime minister Tony Blair, Canada’s leader Mark Carney and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio are among the members of the “Board of Peace” that will oversee the reconstruction of Gaza.

The establishment of the board, chaired by US President Donald Trump, is a key step in the United Nations-backed American plan to demilitarize and rebuild the enclave, which was ravaged by two years of war between Israel and the Hamas militant group.

The “founding Executive Board” also includes Trump’s foreign-policy envoy Steve Witkoff, deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, as well as billionaire businessman Marc Rowan and World Bank head Ajay Banga.

Leaders of several nations subsequently confirmed they had been invited by Trump to join the board. A Canadian government official told CNN that Prime Minister Carney has accepted such an invitation.

Meanwhile, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received an invitation to join the board Friday, the Turkish presidency’s head of communications, Burhanettin Duran, confirmed Saturday.

Argentine President Javier Milei posted on X that he had also received an invitation to be a “founding member” of the board.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi received an invitation and is “studying the matter,” Egypt’s foreign minister told reporters Saturday, according to Reuters news agency.

Before the members were named, Trump labeled the panel “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled” in a social media post officially announcing its formation on Thursday.

Members will each be given a defined portfolio “critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success,” the White House statement said.

The board has no representative of the Palestinian Authority, a rival to Hamas that runs parts of the occupied West Bank and is expected to eventually be handed control of Gaza, after completing extensive reforms.

The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad criticized the composition of the board, saying the appointments “came in line with Israeli specifications” and serve Israeli interests.

Islamic Jihad is the second-largest militant group in Gaza after Hamas and was involved in the deadly attack on Israel and the taking of hostages on October 7, 2023.

Blair, who led Britain for a decade until 2007 and took his country into the war in Iraq in 2003, was initially suggested as a potential leader for the board last year, but the talk quickly faded.

His support for the US-led Iraq campaign damaged Blair’s standing among some Arab states. And in his post-political role as Middle East envoy for what was known as the Quartet, he was disliked by the Palestinians for a perceived pro-Israel stance.

Governance of Gaza

Under the US plan, the day-to-day governance of Gaza will be handled by a separate Palestinian technocratic committee, which will have 15 members.

It will be led by Dr. Ali Sha’ath, a Palestinian from Gaza who previously held a number of positions in the Palestinian Authority, the White House said. The panel will focus on restoring core public services and institutions to help stabilize life in Gaza, according to the statement.

Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and diplomat who previously served as the UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, will serve as high representative for Gaza, the White House said.

Under the US-brokered agreement, the technocratic committee is supposed to run Gaza until a reformed Palestinian Authority can take over, which could then lead to what the plan calls a “credible path to Palestinian self-determination and statehood.” Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the Palestinian Authority’s involvement in Gaza, as well as any notion of a Palestinian state.

Israel effectively had veto power over the members of the committee, demanding that no members of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority be allowed to join. According to an Israeli official, the head of the country’s internal security agency, known as the Shin Bet, told the security cabinet on Tuesday that the agency had approved the 15 names on the committee.

A separate “Gaza executive board” to support governance has also been formed and includes officials from Turkey, Qatar, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and some members of the “Board of Peace” and the technocratic committee.

The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said Saturday the “composition” of the Gaza executive board “was not coordinated with Israel and contradicts its policy.”

Israel has tried to prevent Qatar and Turkey from having any role in the future of Gaza, repeatedly accusing them of supporting and funding Hamas.

Netanyahu has instructed Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar to raise the matter with Rubio, the office said.

An Israeli source familiar with the matter said Netanyahu knew of the White House’s intent to include Turkey and Qatar on the board but tried to prevent it. Even so, the source said, the disagreement over the board does not represent a real dispute with the US, since both are more focused on Iran.

Instead, the source said, Netanyahu’s public anger is more for domestic politics and to appease his right-wing coalition partners.

Far-right Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich slammed the makeup of the board, saying “there must be red lines” and that “the countries that kept Hamas alive cannot be the ones to replace it.” Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir called on Netanyahu to resume the war in Gaza “with immense forces in the Strip, in order to achieve the central objective of the war: the destruction of Hamas.”

Opposition lawmaker Yair Golan, leader of the left-wing Democrats party, also criticized Netanyahu about the board.

“The (Israel Defense Forces) provided Israel with maneuverability and achievements, and the Netanyahu government threw them in the trash and allowed Qatar and Turkey — the financiers of Hamas — to enter Gaza,” he posted to X.

It’s unclear if the members of the executive board will in fact enter Gaza physically or if they intend to manage it from afar.

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CNN’s Tim Lister, Jennifer Hansler, Ibrahim Dahman, Tal Shalev and Billy Stockwell contributed to this report.