UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to sidestep the United Nations with his new peace council appears to have inadvertently backfired as major world powers rejected U.S. wishes for a greater international mandate beyond a ceasefire in Gaza and recommitted support to the more than 80-year-old global body.
The commission chaired by Trump was originally envisioned as a panel of world leaders to oversee his plans for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president’s ambitions have expanded to envision the council as a mediator in global conflicts, a not-so-subtle attempt to eclipse the Security Council charged with ensuring international peace and security.
The committee’s charter also stipulates that Trump will lead the committee until he resigns and has veto power over its actions and membership, which has also caused some frustration.
His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tried to allay concerns, saying the committee was currently focused only on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan.
“This does not replace the United Nations, but the United Nations has little role in Gaza other than providing food aid,” Rubio told a congressional hearing on Wednesday.
But Trump’s push to expand the mandate and float the idea of a peace commission “possibly” replacing the U.N. have daunted major players and been dismissed by U.N. officials.
“I believe that the fundamental responsibility for international peace and security lies with the United Nations, with the Security Council,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday. “Only the Security Council can adopt decisions that are binding on everyone, and no other body or other alliance can legitimately require all member states to comply with decisions on peace and security.”
In Security Council statements, public speeches and closed-door meetings, U.S. allies and adversaries have dismissed Trump’s latest plan to overturn the post-World War II international order, which he calls a “bold new approach to solving conflicts around the world.”
“The introduction of a broader peace commission charter by the United States has turned the entire operation into a liability,” said Richard Gowan, a U.N. observer and program director at the International Crisis Group. “Countries that wanted to join in helping Gaza saw the committee turn into a Trump fan club. That’s not attractive.”
“If Trump had focused the committee solely on Gaza, more countries, including more Europeans, would have signed the deal,” he said.
Key members of the Security Council have not yet signed
The other four veto-wielding members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom – have declined or have not said whether they will join Trump’s board, as have economic giants such as Japan and Germany.
Letters sent this month inviting world leaders to become “founding members” of the peace council coincided with Trump’s vow to take over Greenland, the semi-autonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark, and punish some European countries that resist. That was met with fierce rebuttal by Canada, Denmark and other countries, who said Trump’s demands could upend one of the West’s most immovable alliances.
Soon after, Trump made a dramatic U-turn on Greenland, saying he had agreed with the NATO secretary-general on a “future agreement framework” for Arctic security.
Amid the diplomatic chaos, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who did not respond to Trump’s peace commission invitation at the time, met with Guterres in London and reiterated “Britain’s enduring support for the United Nations and the international rules-based system,” a statement said.
Starmer stressed that the United Nations “plays a key role in solving global issues that affect lives in the UK and around the world”. Britain later refused to join the committee.
France, Spain and Slovenia rejected Trump’s proposal, citing overlap and potential conflict with the U.N. agenda
French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that the committee went beyond “the framework of Gaza and raised serious questions, especially regarding the principles and structures of the United Nations, which cannot be questioned”.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain would not join because the committee excluded the Palestinian Authority and the body was “outside the United Nations framework.”
Some countries call for strengthening the United Nations
U.S. adversaries also avoided the committee.
“No country should issue orders based on its own strength, and the winner-takes-all approach is unacceptable,” Fu Cong, China’s ambassador to the United Nations, told a Security Council meeting on Monday.
He called for strengthening rather than weakening the United Nations, and said the status and role of the Security Council were “irreplaceable.”
In an explicit reference to the Peace Council, Fu Ying said, “We will not cherry-pick our commitments to the organization, nor will we bypass the United Nations and create alternative mechanisms.”
So far, about 26 out of about 60 invited countries have joined the committee, while about nine European countries have declined to join. India did not attend Trump’s signing ceremony at last week’s World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland, but is reportedly still deciding what to do. Trump rescinded Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s invitation.
“It’s not surprising that few governments are willing to join the United Nations that Trump wants to become, which so far looks more like a pay-per-view club of human rights abusers and war crimes suspects than a serious international organization,” said Louis Charbonneau, United Nations director at Human Rights Watch. “Instead of handing Trump a $1 billion check to join his peace council, governments should work to strengthen the United Nations.”
The eight Muslim countries that agreed to join the council issued a joint statement supporting its mission in Gaza and the Palestinian statehood process. Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates made no mention of Trump’s global peace plan.
Crisis Group’s Gowan said their focus will likely be on “getting a foothold in the Gaza discussion” from the start, as Trump’s ceasefire plans have already suffered several setbacks.
“I remain unconvinced that this poses a real long-term threat to the United Nations,” Gowan said.