US Seeks $1 Billion for Gaza Peace Board's Long-Term Vision

Former British prime minister Tony Blair was listed alongside high-profile Trump administration officials as part of a "founding executive board" to lead long-term peace efforts in the Middle East, published by the White House on Friday. This will be the operational arm of the Gaza "Board of Peace", aimed at preventing future conflict in the territory, which will be chaired by Mr Trump and other serving world leaders who have not yet been named. But the Israeli government said on Saturday that the executive committee "was not co-ordinated with Israel and is contrary to its policy", and that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given instructions to the foreign ministry to contact US secretary of state Marco Rubio. Earlier Mr Blair had said he was "honoured" to be named as part of the team. Other officials listed in the executive board included Mr Rubio, special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, and Mr Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner. Former UN special envoy Nickolay Mladenov was also named to the board, alongside billionaire Marc Rowan, World Bank president Ajay Banga and US deputy national security adviser Robert Gabriel. The White House said the founding executive board will help "operationalise the Board of Peace's vision" and suggested the individual members would each hold specialist portfolios to help "stabilisation" efforts in Gaza. The former Labour prime minister also appeared on a longer list of names as part of a separate "Gaza executive board", the purpose of which appears to be advising a newly established interim government for the region. Mr Trump said the US was launching "phase two" of its 20-point plan to end the Gaza conflict, which Mr Witkoff said would see the focus shift beyond a ceasefire and towards demilitarisation, technocratic governance and reconstruction. A draft charter sent to about 60 countries by the U.S. administration calls for members to contribute $1 billion in cash if they want their membership to last more than three years, according to the document seen by Reuters. "Each Member State shall serve a term of no more than three years from this Charter's entry into force, subject to renewal by the Chairman," the document, first reported by Bloomberg News, shows. "The three-year membership term shall not apply to Member States that contribute more than USD $1,000,000,000 in cash funds to the Board of Peace within the first year of the Charter's entry into force."