Prime Minister Mark Carney has been asked by U.S. President Donald Trump to join the “Board of Peace” that will supervise the temporary governance of the Gaza Strip, a senior Canadian official told journalists travelling with the prime minister on his overseas trip.
Carney will accept the invitation, the official said.
Under a U.S. plan that Israel and Hamas signed off on, a Palestinian technocratic body will be overseen by the international board for a transitional period.
The White House named members of the board on Friday. They include U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, former British prime minister Tony Blair and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. Trump is the chair of the board, according to the plan revealed late last year.
Egypt is reviewing an invitation from Trump for Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi to join the board, Egypt’s foreign affairs minister told reporters on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Trump has also sent a letter inviting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to become a member, the Turkish presidency said on Saturday.
The board also includes private equity executive and billionaire Marc Rowan, World Bank president Ajay Banga, Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan and Robert Gabriel, a Trump adviser, the White House said, adding that Nickolay Mladenov, a former United Nations Middle East envoy, will have the role of high representative for Gaza.
The White House statement did not lay out the responsibilities of each member.
Carney’s was not among the names in the White House announcement.
Many rights experts and advocates have previously said that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory’s governance resembled a colonial structure, while Blair’s involvement was criticized last year due to his role in the Iraq war.
Maj.-Gen. Jasper Jeffers, a former U.S. special operations commander, was appointed commander of the International Stabilization Force, the White House said. A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the Board of Peace and countries working with it to establish that force in Gaza.
