MXM Exclusive
President Trump used the World Economic Forum stage in Davos on Thursday to formally
unveil and ratify his new “Board of Peace,” officially establishing the
body as an international organization tasked with overseeing the next
phase of his Gaza strategy and laying the groundwork for a broader
global peace framework.
Standing before delegates from more than 20 countries,
Trump said the long-running Israel–Hamas war was nearing its conclusion.
“They’re down to little fires,” he said of the fighting after more than
two years of conflict. “We can put them out very easily.”
Trump became the first signatory to the charter creating
the Board of Peace, joined by senior officials from across the Middle
East, Europe, Central Asia, and Latin America — including Saudi Arabia,
Egypt, Qatar, Turkey, Hungary, the UAE, and Argentina — in a ceremony
designed to mark the board’s formal entry onto the world stage.
Trump cast the signing as a defining milestone of his
second-term foreign policy. “We have peace in the Middle East — no one
thought that was possible,” he told the audience. “Today the world is a
safer, richer and much more peaceful place than it was one year ago.” He
said the board would work alongside existing international institutions
while offering what he described as a results-driven alternative to a
United Nations that has strayed from its founding mission of conflict
resolution and global security. “Once this board is completely formed,
we can do pretty much whatever we want to do,” Trump said. “Together we
are in a position to end decades of suffering, stop generations of
hatred and bloodshed and forge a lasting and beautiful peace for that
region.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that the board’s
initial mandate would remain narrowly focused. “First and foremost,”
Rubio said, the board’s responsibility is to ensure that the Gaza peace
deal “becomes enduring” before expanding its role to other conflicts.
The Board of Peace was conceived last fall as part of
Trump’s 20-point Gaza peace plan, advanced by special envoy Steve
Witkoff and senior adviser Jared Kushner. The framework calls for Hamas
to be fully disarmed, a transitional Palestinian government to replace
Hamas in Gaza, and an international peacekeeping force to supervise
security and governance. In November, the United Nations ratified a
resolution endorsing the board’s role in supervising that transition.
Trump made clear Thursday that disarmament remains the
central condition for any lasting settlement. “They were born with
rifles in their hands,” he said of Hamas fighters. “But they have to
give up their weapons. If they don’t do that, it’s totally the end of
them.” The administration is now moving forward with what it calls Phase
Two of the plan, despite Hamas failing to return the remains of Israeli
counter-terror officer Ran “Rani” Gvili, believed to be the last
unrecovered victim of the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks. “We are committed that
Hamas must return that last remaining deceased hostage,” Trump said.
“We’re committed to ensuring Gaza is demilitarized, properly governed
and beautifully rebuilt.”
Reconstruction, Trump said, is a central pillar of the
peace strategy. Kushner presented development concepts for a postwar
Gaza that would replace large sections of the territory with new housing
and coastal tourism projects, including 100,000 housing units in Rafah
and the construction of a “New Gaza” City. “In the Middle East, they
build cities like this — two, three million people — in three years,”
Kushner said. “This is very doable if we make it happen.”
Trump closed by returning to the language of rebuilding and
permanence. “This is a great location,” he said. “I’m a real estate
person at heart, and it’s all about location.” In Davos, the president
presented the Board of Peace not as a symbolic gesture, but as a formal
international institution meant to lock in the Gaza settlement, anchor
regional stability, and define his administration’s approach to global
peace.