Europe grudgingly, gingerly moves toward Trump’s Board of Peace

Por Daniella Cheslow — POLITICO – TOP Stories

UNITED NATIONS — European nations that shunned the Board of Peace when it was announced a year ago are starting to work with it on humanitarian projects in the Gaza Strip. But they aren’t happy about it.

Even as the European Commission tiptoes into projects with the group created by President Donald Trump, the Board of Peace’s ambitious vision to disarm and rebuild Gaza remains largely on paper. Despite that, it’s still a political force to be reckoned with, tied to top Trump allies, and too big to ignore.

So Europe is looking for ways to work with the organization without fully supporting it.

“All the traditional donors are willing to work in parallel but not to transfer money to the Board of Peace,” Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide said in an interview. Norway is not a member of the EU, but it works with the bloc on donating to Palestinians.

Eide explained that Norway would prefer to work with “established institutions” like the World Bank. The Board of Peace does not publish its budget or organizational chart. And although it holds an account with the World Bank, it maintains separate holdings at JPMorgan Chase.

“The Board of Peace’s mechanisms will not align with our reporting regulations,” he said.

The Board of Peace didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The hesitation was visible at a Wednesday briefing with Board of Peace officials on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly. At the event, European Commissioner for the Mediterranean Dubravka Šuica announced she’d be signing onto two projects funded by Europe in partnership with U.N. agencies and “in alignment with the priorities of the Board of Peace.”

But her description of the collaboration with the board was far from laudatory.

“The key is to remain pragmatic,” Šuica said.

The European Commission said in a statement that “considering the massive early recovery needs in Gaza, coordination and alignment at all levels is of course necessary to deliver on the ground.”

The Board of Peace was announced a year ago during the General Assembly and held its first meeting in February. The EU and most of its member states refused to join the Board of Peace, in part from concerns it could supplant the U.N.

Since then, European nations have invited Board of Peace representatives to their meetings and attended Security Council briefings with the head of the board, Nickolay Mladenov. The joint projects are the first concrete step toward collaboration.

The grudging embrace of the body extends even to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the organization that handles Palestinian refugees in Gaza and which Israel and the U.S. have pushed to sideline.

The Board of Peace is “the one game in town,” said UNRWA’s interim head, Christian Saunders. “Everybody needs to get behind it.”

Romanian Foreign Minister Oana-Silvia Țoiu was diplomatic about the role of the board in an interview. She said her country is working with the U.N. and the EU and “yes, where we see complementarity, of course, we are supporting what is happening at the Board of Peace level.”

She added that she participated in a meeting with Mladenov at the U.N. on Thursday.

That approach is not unanimous.

A French official, who like others was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic affairs, stressed that “the U.N. should remain the primary forum for facilitating the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, resolving disputes and advancing the political process.”

The Board of Peace sought, and received, endorsement by the U.N. in November last year as “a transitional administration … that will set the framework, and coordinate funding for, the redevelopment of Gaza.”

But it operates independently, and critics say it is a capitulation to Trump and to Israel.

“It’s a gateway to Washington at the top and the Palestinian technocrats at the bottom,” said the International Crisis Group’s Amjad Iraqi, who is in close contact with European, Arab and Palestinian officials. However, he said, “what is being decided is decided by Israel.”

He pointed to ongoing Israeli restrictions on entry for heavy equipment and reconstruction equipment, which Israel says it will not permit until Hamas disarms. But the Board of Peace plan to disarm Hamas has foundered. Moreover, Israel has continued lethal strikes on what it says are Hamas targets in Gaza, albeit at a smaller scale than last year.

An Arab diplomat whose country is a member of the Board of Peace said the board speaks to Israel about civilian casualties “in a private capacity. Whether this is enough or not is debatable.”

Romania’s Țoiu said that for a problem of the scale of Gaza, “you need the big actors on board” including “U.S. as a core facilitator of what can happen as a pressure for disarmament of Hamas.”

The Board of Peace argues that it has made significant progress on key issues. First among them is a negotiation for the nominal ceasefire and the release of Israeli hostages from Gaza — an achievement Trump himself touted in his speech before the General Assembly on Tuesday. It has also trained 500 troops for the International Stabilization Force that the U.N. authorized to stabilize Gaza and ensure its demilitarization. And it says it’s building out the infrastructure needed to govern the enclave.

Ali Shaath, the head of the Board of Peace’s Palestinian technocratic committee, which is set to govern Gaza, argued at Wednesday’s event that the Board of Peace is needed to bring order to a “fragmented” situation.

Tens of thousands of employees of the Palestinian Authority, municipalities, the strip’s de facto government and a bevy of U.N. agencies and international NGOs are operating in the enclave, he said, and his panel would consolidate them.

“We are following one principle: one authority, one law and one weapon,” he said.

Mladenov has also acknowledged the tension of working amid fighting. He said at this week’s event that the board was working on a “sophisticated deconflicting mechanism” to address security challenges before they reach “the kinetic stage.”

On Wednesday the Board of Peace released a list of 66 projects worth $2.45 billion, ranging from providing insulated caravans to supporting public transportation to fixing hospitals, that it expects to begin soon. The plan is to complete those six months from their start date — which wasn’t specified.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and a member of the Board of Peace’s executive board, argued at the same event that “what you’ve seen is almost like the building of a really, really big startup.”

Tom Warrick, who headed up postwar Iraq planning for the State Department and is in touch with European officials, said the lack of specificity is exactly what makes Europe and other potential partners nervous about the board’s plans.

“This looks good on paper, but what’s missing is how do we get from here to the actual launch point of most of the projects in this plan,” Warrick said.

Mladenov gave an indication at the Board of Peace event that little might move before Israel’s Oct. 27 elections.

“Our discussions with Israel right now are not easy because of the elections there,” he said.

He emphasized his goal was a durable peace including Hamas disarmament.

“We’re not bound by a calendar or dates. We’re bound by verification. We want to make sure that this works,” he said.

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories