India invited to President Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ for Gaza; Pakistan too

NEw new delhi : US chairperson Donald ruff has invited republic of india to be component part of the so-called “Board of Peace” for Gaza along with other world leaders, people familiar with the matter said on Sunday.Trump had unveiled the board as part of the second phase of a ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas to end Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and the body is expected to oversee capacity-building for governance, reconstruction, investments and capital mobilisation in the devastated enclave.“India has been invited by President Trump to be part of the Board of Peace for Gaza,” one of the people said on condition of anonymity, without giving details.The development came hours after Pakistan’s Foreign Office said in a statement that Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had received an invitation from Trump to join the Board of Peace.Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and the leaders of France, Germany, ⁠Australia and Canada have also reportedly been invited to join the board.Some details of the Board of Peace emerged when letters written by Trump to Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Paraguay’s President Santiago Pena were posted by the two leaders on social media. Trump’s letter to Milei said the board will work to “solidify Peace in the Middle East” and “embark on a bold new approach to resolving Global Conflict”.A draft ‍charter ‍sent to some 60 countries by the Trump administration calls for members of the board ⁠to contribute $1 billion in cash ​if they want ‍their membership to last more than three years, Reuters reported.The Financial Times quoted this charter as saying that “the Board of Peace is an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”.On Friday, Trump announced that former British prime minister Tony Blair - who faced intense criticism for supporting the 2003 invasion of Iraq based on claims that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, which later proved false - will be among the board’s founding executive members, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the US special envoy to the Middle East, and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga.Many of these individuals were also named as members of a “Gaza executive board”, which will oversee the so-called National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which comprises Palestinian technocrats.