Trump ‘Board of Peace’ plan sparks UN replacement concerns (Full Transcript)

[00:00:00] Speaker 1: Welcome to the Global News Podcast on YouTube where we go behind the headlines. And today we're looking at Donald Trump's so-called Board of Peace, which was supposed to help Gaza, but now apparently has much wider ambitions. We're joined by our Middle East analyst, Sebastian Usher. And Sebastian, what is this Board of Peace?

[00:00:20] Speaker 2: Well, we still don't 100% know when it was first spoken about, when Mr Trump first presented. It did seem that it was already locked into Gaza and trying to resolve the conflict there. It seemed to be an offshoot of that. Since then, we've seen several other boards splinter and above them is reigning the board of all boards, it seems, the Board of Peace, which has now morphed into something which could be much wider. And essentially, invitations have been sent out to world leaders of all kinds. How they would all get on within this Board of Peace, how much peace there would be if they were all in one room together, I think is a big question. But it's being presented by the Trump administration as something that can oversee the world, conflicts across the world, moving away from Gaza, really, not specifically focused on that. And we've heard from a number of world leaders that they've received invitations, some of them like President Putin, his spokesperson, saying that they're looking into it. Some like France saying that they were very much up for it when it was about Gaza. But if it's a potential replacement for the UN Security Council, that's not what we're interested in. And then a number of countries, Hungary, Argentina, just looking at some of the names, Morocco, Vietnam, Belarus have joined up, Israel has joined up. There was some speculation that the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, wouldn't want to, because there would be people on the Board of Peace that are very much people that he wouldn't want to be in the same room as, like the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

[00:02:03] Speaker 1: That's a separate board, isn't it?

[00:02:05] Speaker 2: Exactly. Now that's the way it seems to be developing. So yes, I mean, we should talk about the other boards.

[00:02:13] Speaker 1: Because it's quite a complicated structure. Although Mr. Trump does seem to have huge overarching powers over this whole body.

[00:02:23] Speaker 2: That's how it looks at the moment. I mean, all the issues of the UN and the UN Security Council, and the way that the powerful countries have the veto, so can block. I mean, you look at Israel, you look at other issues around the world, look at Ukraine, and often no action is taken because one country which is very closely involved in that decides to veto any move. Well, this seems almost to be boiling down to one man will now have that veto for everything across the world, if this develops into a genuine powerful entity that has a role that can, to some extent, fulfill some of what the UN has been doing, which I think is certainly what President Trump and his administration would be looking at. I mean, they have been absolutely, their criticism of the UN on every level has been intense throughout. And they would essentially like the UN in so many areas to be replaced, Gaza being the first one of all. So, you know, it really comes down to, is this going to be shaped only by the Trump administration, only by the US? Or as more countries come in and get involved, will they be able to shape the way forward on this and be able to turn it into something which would not just seem to be a vehicle for President Trump?

[00:03:36] Speaker 1: Because underneath that board of peace, which countries have been invited to join, is an executive board. And so far, the majority of members on that executive board are Trump loyalists like Steve Witkoff, or Jared Kushner, and controversially, the former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, a billionaire US financier, Mark Rowan, etc.

[00:04:00] Speaker 2: So these are people who are all of a very particular type, one could say, who would all have probably a pretty consistent perspective on global issues. Now, there's that executive board, which is under the Board of Peace, which my understanding at the moment is that they would be looking across the world at issues. Then there's another executive board, which is specifically about Gaza, on which Tony Blair also features. But there are other regional leaders from Egypt, from Turkey, etc. on that board, that is supposed to be overseeing the reconstruction of Gaza, when and if that ever begins to happen. Then subsidiary to that is a technocratic committee of Palestinians who've been named, who are supposed to be involved in the day to day governance of Gaza. But what this talk about the Board of Peace seems to have done, and certainly from the perspective of many people who want to see action taken on Gaza, is moving it away from that and making action in the immediate future being taken on Gaza and making phase two of Gaza be put into action, seemed to be a more distant possibility. So rather than being something which is going to be very proactive in forcing that forward, it feels at the moment it might be actually distancing itself and making that less likely to be happening.

[00:05:29] Speaker 1: Because apparently the draft of the charter doesn't even mention Gaza.

[00:05:33] Speaker 2: No mention of Gaza, it's moved away from that. We really are a bit in the dark about this at the moment. I mean, how much this is a separate structure, and not weakening or diminishing the role of the board, which is specifically about Gaza, the executive board, is an open question. But then that brings you into the whole issue of what the Trump administration, what Israel, what other entities around actually want to do about Gaza. How much do they really want to move forward on this second phase? President Trump has talked about it a lot. But of course, he has many other issues at the moment that are at the forefront, even more than Gaza has been for some time. And is he going to listen as we've seen before, to the perspective of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, more than anyone else?

[00:06:18] Speaker 1: But there are wider questions about the credibility of this board, given that Russia, which invaded Ukraine, has been invited to be on it. And given that member countries are being asked to cough up a billion dollars each if they want permanent membership.

[00:06:32] Speaker 2: I mean, of course, of course. I mean, that's a huge issue. But as I say, if you look at the UN Security Council, that's not so different. You look at the UN, that is many countries obviously pulling in different directions.

[00:06:42] Speaker 1: Critics would say this is designed to undermine the UN, which is the big arbiter of global security since the Second World War.

[00:06:50] Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely. I mean, President Trump hasn't specifically put it that way. But he has, you know, as I'm saying, his track record, the administration's track record is essentially to criticise and condemn the UN on almost every level, and to bypass it as well when it wants to. So there's no doubt, however, this may have been stated publicly, that this is being projected as a way of bypassing the UN and that role that it's played. Now, many people would be critical of the way the UN has operated all these years. But having another entity, which seems to be even less wide ranging in the powers spread out across the world that you know, in the Security Council, there are four or five countries which really call the shots. This is one where maybe it's only the US is going to call the shots, and maybe just President Trump. And also the issue is, President Trump at the moment, if this gets off the ground, I think is in, you know, he's the eternal leader of this Board of Peace. He doesn't have to be President of the US anymore. It hasn't been stated. We'll see whether it's the President of the US or President Trump. But at the moment, it seems to be Mr. Trump. Even after he leaves the White House? That seems to be where it's going. So it would give him a huge leverage potentially still after that. You talk about the billion dollars. Now the billion dollars is an order, you know, I mean, many people are making the comparison with Mr. Trump's famous club, Mar-a-Lago, you know, you sign up a membership, you pay for that membership. So if you want to be a permanent member, at the moment, I think you get three years as a member and then or you could be kicked out by President Trump before that, he's made clear, but three years, if you want to be a permanent member, you pay a billion dollars. Now, that clearly is an attempt to be able to finance an operation that again, would be able to match the UN on the ground. And going back to Gaza, we're seeing the way that the US has backed Israel in its attack, its condemnation of the UN and other aid agencies there and trying to provide an alternative. We saw that before the ceasefire with, you know, an operation that was set up to bypass the UN and it failed, but that's continuing. So I think that is something we should look at of where this might be going.

[00:09:02] Speaker 1: Sebastian, thank you. And if you like this episode, please subscribe to us here on YouTube. And if you have any other stories you'd like us to cover, please leave a comment below. And for more international news, you can always download our Global News Podcast from wherever you get your podcasts.