As President Trump’s Board of Peace prepares to satisfy for the primary time Thursday, he says the group has raised $5 billion for Gaza reconstruction. However key challenges stay.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
President Trump is convening the first-ever assembly of the Board of Peace in the present day in Washington, D.C.
LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Trump says the group was initiated to supervise plans to finish the battle in Gaza. He says member states have already pledged $5 billion for Gaza reconstruction. In a number of moments, we’ll communicate with former Center East peace adviser Aaron David Miller. First, this is the most recent info.
MARTIN: Becoming a member of us to inform us extra about in the present day’s assembly and the hurdles forward for Gaza is NPR worldwide correspondent Aya Batrawy. She’s in Dubai. Good morning, Aya.
AYA BATRAWY, BYLINE: Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So remind us of what this Board of Peace is about and who is predicted to attend this assembly in the present day.
BATRAWY: Positive. So the Board of Peace is chaired by Trump, and the group was formally established solely final month, and so that is their first assembly. Now, Trump might be addressing a roomful of heads of states and high diplomats from round 40 nations, together with additionally the European Union. The assembly can have dignitaries from Argentina and Hungary to locations like India and Vietnam. In the meantime, France and the U.Ok., which haven’t joined the board out of considerations that Russia may very well be part of this new group, might be sending observers to this assembly in the present day. Nonetheless, Israel and Arab states are a part of this board, they usually too might be on the assembly, however there aren’t any Palestinians on the Board of Peace. Now, the occasion is being held on the newly renamed Donald J. Trump U.S. Institute for Peace in Washington, and a few worry that Trump’s Board of Peace may very well be used to undermine the United Nations. Really, a U.N. Safety Council assembly on Gaza was moved a day earlier so as to accommodate diplomats with the ability to attend each conferences.
MARTIN: And as you talked about, this board was first created to supervise Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza. So the place does the ceasefire stand now?
BATRAWY: So the ceasefire that Trump pushed via final October is shaky. Palestinian well being officers say greater than 600 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza in Israeli assaults in these 4 months of ceasefire. And the subsequent steps of the ceasefire plan are nonetheless unclear, and that is why this assembly in the present day is critical, Michel. Nations are anticipated to be making some large tangible pledges. Trump has talked about $5 billion in pledges towards reconstruction. We might hear which nations made these preliminary pledges in the present day, however that $5 billion is a fraction of what is wanted, and it might be going towards the Trump administration’s imaginative and prescient for a brand new Gaza in areas nonetheless below Israeli navy management. You recognize, Gaza proper now’s break up in two. Israeli forces occupy greater than half of this tiny territory, and a few 2 million Palestinians reside in dire situations in a sliver alongside the ocean the place Hamas nonetheless governs. And so reconstruction funds wouldn’t be going to these areas the place Palestinians reside, and Israel nonetheless tightly controls the borders of what can are available in relating to reconstruction supplies and assist.
MARTIN: So given all the things you have simply advised us, Aya, how may this Board of Peace truly guarantee progress?
BATRAWY: All proper. So a vital a part of this subsequent part of Trump’s ceasefire plan is the deployment of 1000’s of worldwide troops to Gaza. This worldwide stabilization power wouldn’t be policing the streets of Gaza, however it might be extra of a buffer between Israel and Hamas to attempt to hold the peace and monitor violations of the ceasefire. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, says it is able to ship troops. And we might hear comparable commitments at in the present day’s assembly from different nations, however Israel doesn’t wish to surrender management of Gaza, and it has objected, for instance, to Turkey’s supply to ship troops, and that is additionally delayed Egypt signing up as effectively and saying that they’d go in.
So the opposite key a part of the plan additionally hinges on Hamas disarming. Now, it is a key demand by Israel in addition to the USA and several other Arab nations who do not wish to pour cash into Gaza with out assurances that Hamas not guidelines and a warfare will not resume. Now, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a few days in the past, mentioned Hamas should not solely surrender heavy weapons like rockets and mortars, but additionally small arms like Kalashnikov rifles. He is insisting on this, at the same time as Israel is arming rival Palestinian militias and clans which might be preventing Hamas in Gaza. And this week, Israel mentioned Hamas has simply 60 days to surrender all its weapons or Israel will resume full navy operations, which clearly would blow up Trump’s ceasefire and resume a warfare that has decimated Gaza and killed complete households there. So, Michel, there’s rather a lot to debate at this assembly and lots of driving on this primary assembly of Trump’s Board of Peace.
MARTIN: Yeah. A lot to maintain monitor of. That’s NPR’s Aya Batrawy in Dubai. Aya, thanks.
BATRAWY: Thanks, Michel.
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