The authoritarian regimes of Russia and Belarus have received invitations from the White House to be part of the Peace Board, the body that will oversee the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, aspires to later become. an institution for resolving other conflicts around the world.
The Kremlin confirmed this Monday that it has received the invitation from the White House. “The United States has invited Vladimir Putin to join the Peace Board,” announced the spokesman for the Russian president, Dmitri Peskov. Putin, however, has not made a decision yet. “We are studying all the details of the proposal. We hope to contact the American side to clarify all the nuances,” Peskov said.
Trump will head the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG, its official name). And he has chosen two key people in contacts with Russia to be part of that board: his special envoy for everything, including the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and his own son-in-law, Jared Kushner. More than fifty heads of state and world leaders have been invited to have a seat in the organization, under the strict direction of Trump.
France, on the other hand, has already hinted that it will reject the invitation. “Like many other countries, France has been invited to join the Peace Board and is examining, together with its partners, the proposed legal framework. At this stage, it has no intention of giving a favorable response,” sources close to the president, Emmanuel Macron, said this Monday.
“The Charter goes beyond the sole framework of Gaza. It raises far-reaching questions, particularly with regard to respect for the principles and structure of the United Nations, which in no case can be called into question,” they add. “France remains fully committed to a ceasefire in Gaza and to a credible political horizon for both the Palestinians and the Israelis. It will continue to defend effective multilateralism,” the same sources emphasize.
The Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, has published on his LinkedIn profile a brief statement in which, without citing Trump or his Peace Board, he states: “The United Nations General Assembly is the parliament of the family of nations. It is a forum in which all voices are heard, a crucible for consensus and a beacon for cooperation. And for eight decades the General Assembly has been the place where the world comes together to help promote peace, foster sustainable development and safeguard human rights.” “Humanity is stronger when we stay united,” he concludes.
Israel has also received an invitation from the United States to join the Peace Board, two sources familiar with the matter have told Reuters. The Government of Benjamin Netanyahu, responsible for the destruction of Gaza after two years of military offensive, has not yet clarified whether it will accept.
“New security architecture”
Who has shown enthusiasm for the initiative is the president of Belarus, Aleksandr Lukashenko. “We are willing to participate in the activities of the Peace Board and we hope that this organization expands its scope and authority far beyond the mandate that has been proposed,” the Belarusian presidency said in a statement released by its Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minsk proposes that Trump’s committee “actively participate in global processes to resolve any international conflict, which will ultimately contribute to the construction of a new security architecture.” The president of the United States himself has the same intention, who in a recent interview with Reuters hinted that the Peace Board, led by him, will address other world conflicts when he has resolved the one in Gaza.
Behind the Belarusian support is the recent rapprochement between Minsk and Washington under the Trump Administration. This Eastern European dictatorship released 123 political prisoners a month ago in exchange for the United States lifting its sanctions on potash ore, a component of which the former Soviet State is a global producer. “The invitation (from the White House) is in recognition of the personal achievements and international career of the Belarusian leader,” the statement from Minsk states.
Washington announced the constitution of the “Peace Board” last Friday. Trump’s appointments coincide with the entry into force of the second and final phase of the truce agreed in October between the Palestinian militia Hamas and the Government of Israel with American mediation.
Trump’s roadmap provides for a complete cessation of hostilities with the disarmament of Hamas and the withdrawal of Israeli troops. According to a draft of the statute of this committee to which the Bloomberg agency has had access, the board will be an “international organization that will seek to reestablish solid and legitimate governance” in the area.
However, this supposed international organization will be totally subject to the designs of Trump, who will be able to invite and expel board members unless the majority of its members vote against. In addition, the member countries of the committee will have a time limit of three years, unless they contribute $1 billion to the platform.
Ukraine as a priority
The Kremlin spokesman has avoided commenting on other issues that concern the Kremlin and could cloud his relationship with Trump, such as the future of his ally Venezuela and Washington’s plans for Greenland, where the White House wants to deploy part of its new anti-missile shield, the Golden Dome.
“Questions aside about its legality or whether the annexation of Greenland is positive or negative, it is difficult to disagree with the opinion that Trump will thus enter world history,” Putin’s spokesman has limited himself to stating, a president who set a precedent with the illegal annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea in 2014.
The Kremlin’s priority is to The United States definitively abandons Ukraine. Everything else, including the future of its allies, has taken a backseat. “Putin has no plans to speak with Delcy Rodríguez now, but a meeting could be arranged quickly,” Peskov declared three days after the new Venezuelan president met with CIA director John Ratcliffe.
https://elpais.com/internacional/2026-01-19/trump-ofrece-a-putin-un-puesto-en-la-junta-de-paz-que-dirigira-gaza.html
