US president asks Turkiye’s Erdogan, Egypt’s el-Sisi to join board to supervise temporary governance of Gaza Names Blair, Rubio as founding members.
WASHINGTON/ TEL AVIV – United States President Donald Trump has invited the leaders of Egypt and Turkiye to join his “board of peace” to oversee the post-war transition in Gaza, according to authorities in Ankara and Cairo.
The board is expected to supervise the temporary governance of the Gaza Strip under the US president’s plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in the besieged territory.
A Turkish presidential spokesperson posted on social media on Saturday that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received an invitation from Trump a day earlier to “become a founding member” of the board. Separately, Egypt’s foreign minister, Badr Abdelatty, said at a news conference on Saturday that the country was reviewing a separate invitation from Trump to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to join the board.
The White House on Friday announced several members of a “founding executive board” for Gaza, which has been reeling from more than two years of Israeli military bombardment and restrictions on humanitarian aid deliveries.
That executive board – to be chaired by Trump – includes US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.
The announcements are part of Trump’s proposal to end Israel’s war on Gaza that was unveiled in October. The plan says a Palestinian technocratic body will be overseen by international actors who will supervise Gaza’s governance for a transitional period. Earlier, Donald Trump tapped Secretary of State Marco Rubio and former British prime minister Tony Blair as founding members of the Gaza “board of peace.”
Trump also named his special envoy Steve Witkoff, son-in-law Jared Kushner and World Bank President Ajay Banga among those on the seven-member “founding executive board,” the White House said in a statement. Trump himself will chair the board, it said, adding that further members would be announced in coming weeks.
Blair is a controversial choice in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure he was an “acceptable choice to everybody.”
Trump had announced the formation of the “board of peace” on Thursday, a key phase two element of a US-backed plan to end the war in Gaza.
The US president said it was the “Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place.”
The board’s creation comes shortly after the announcement of a 15-member Palestinian technocratic committee, charged with managing the day-to-day governance of devastated post-war Gaza.
Gaza native and former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath will head the new committee.
Trump on Friday also named US Major General Jasper Jeffers to head the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in Gaza.
The US-backed Gaza peace plan first came into force on October 10, leading to the return of all the hostages held by Hamas and an end to the fighting between the Palestinian militant group and Israel in the besieged territory.
The plan’s second phase is now underway, though clouded by allegations of aid shortages and violence.
Hamas, meanwhile, has refused to publicly commit to a full disarmament, a non-negotiable demand from Israel.
Trump’s “Board of Peace” for postwar Gaza began to take shape Saturday, with the leaders of Egypt, Turkey, Argentina and Canada asked to join.
The announcements from those leaders came after the US president named his Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and senior negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff to the panel.
Trump had already declared himself the chair of the body, as he promotes a controversial vision of economic development in the Palestinian territory, which lies in rubble after two-plus years of relentless Israeli bombardment.
The moves came after a Palestinian committee of technocrats meant to govern Gaza held its first meeting in Cairo which was attended by Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law who has partnered with Witkoff for months on the issue.
In Canada, a senior aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney said he intended to accept Trump’s invitation, while in Turkey, a spokesman for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he had been asked to become a “founding member” of the board.
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said Cairo was “studying” a request for President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to join.
Sharing an image of the invitation letter, Argentine President Javier Milei wrote on X that it would be “an honor” to participate in the initiative.
In a statement sent to AFP, Blair said: “I thank President Trump for his leadership in establishing the Board of Peace and am honored to be appointed to its Executive Board.”
Blair is a controversial figure in the Middle East because of his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Trump himself said last year that he wanted to make sure Blair was an “acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair spent years focused on the Israeli-Palestinian issue as representative of the “Middle East Quartet” — the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia — after leaving Downing Street in 2007.
The White House said the Board of Peace will take on issues such as “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding and capital mobilization.”
The other members of the board so far are World Bank President Ajay Banga, an Indian-born American businessman; billionaire US financier Marc Rowan; and Robert Gabriel, a loyal Trump aide who serves on the US National Security Council.
Trump has created a second “Gaza executive board” that appears designed to have a more advisory role. It was not immediately clear which world leaders were asked to be on each board. The White House, which said Friday that additional members would be named to both entities, did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, In a rare break with US President Donald Trump’s administration, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said Saturday that White House unveiling of the Gaza Board of Peace’s executive committee “was not coordinated with Israel and contradicts its policy.”
The executive committee includes top officials from Turkey and Qatar, both of which have been highly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza.
While it will technically operate beneath the Board of Peace, which is headed by Trump and made up of world leaders, the executive committee will be more directly involved in overseeing the postwar management of Gaza, playing a critical role, as opposed to the more symbolic Board of Peace.
Netanyahu’s office says in the statement that the premier instructed Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar to raise Israeli opposition to the executive board’s makeup with his US counterpart, Marco Rubio. Sa’ar has largely been kept away from involvement in Israel-US relations, which have been run by Netanyahu’s office and his top advisers.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir calls for a full return to war in Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that the US did not coordinate with Israel on the composition of a key panel intended to play a central role in the Strip’s postwar governance.
The panel, the Gaza Board of Peace’s executive committee, includes top officials from Turkey and Qatar, both of which have been highly critical of Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza. The premier’s office said the unveiling of the board “contradicts” Israeli policy.
“I commend the Prime Minister for his important statement. The Gaza Strip does not need any ‘governing council’ to oversee its ‘rehabilitation’ — it needs to be cleared of Hamas terrorists, who must be eliminated, alongside the encouragement of large-scale voluntary emigration, in accordance with President Trump’s original plan,” writes the far-right minister in a Hebrew-language post on X.
Trump called early last year for the permanent relocation of Gaza’s population and for the US to take over the postwar Strip, but has since abandoned that plan and is focused on implementing the current Gaza peace framework, which calls for Palestinians not to be displaced from Gaza.
Ben Gvir calls on Netanyahu “to instruct the IDF to prepare to return to the fighting in the Strip with overwhelming force, in order to achieve the central objective of the war: the destruction of Hamas.”
