USA
United States President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” held its inaugural meeting in Washington on Thursday with nine nations pledging $7bn in funds to help rebuild war-torn Gaza.
Trump also announced that five nations, including Morocco, had agreed to contribute troops for an international stabilisation force for the territory.
They will initially be deployed to the southern city of Rafah, where Washington hopes to base its first reconstruction efforts.
“We will help Gaza, we will straighten it out, we will make it successful, we’ll make it peaceful, and we will do things like that in other spots,” Trump said.
An estimated $70bn is needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war between Israel and Hamas.
Trump said that “other spots will come up” and “we will take care of a lot of things”, suggesting it could help solve conflicts across the globe.
Countries, including Washington’s key allies in the West and major powers of the Global South, have been reluctant to join Trump’s grouping which he chairs.
Some fear the board – created purportedly to oversee his Gaza ceasefire plan – could be used to undermine the United Nations.
A UN spokesperson on Thursday said Washington had paid about $160 million of the more than $4 billion it owes to the world body.
“We’ll work again with the United Nations and bring it back to health. It needs help. It’s got tremendous potential, but it needs a lot of help.”
He hinted that the US – the world body’s largest donor – will be making more changes to the institution, including to the appearance of its headquarters in New York.
“I like to see beautiful buildings. I like to see buildings fixed up physically, not look like they are in disrepair,” Trump said. “We don’t like that. So we’re going to do a job with the United Nations.”
Around 50 countries attended the meeting, including Britain, Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland, which have not joined the board, but whose officials went as observers.
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