Kanishka Singh
WASHINGTON, Feb 7 (Reuters) – U.S. government officials confirmed on Saturday that a peace commission championed by U.S. President Donald Trump will hold its first leadership meeting on February 19, but gave no further details.
Axios first reported the planned meeting, which said it would also serve as a fundraising meeting for Gaza reconstruction.
“We can confirm that a peace committee meeting is scheduled for February 19,” the official said in a statement to Reuters. Further questions were referred to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The meeting will be held at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C., Axios reported.
At least one world leader has confirmed his participation. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Trump’s closest allies in the European Union, said at a campaign event in the western city of Szombathely on Saturday that he would travel to Washington within two weeks for a peace council meeting.
In late January, Trump established the commission he would chair, which he said would be aimed at resolving conflicts around the world, leading some experts to worry that such a commission could undermine the United Nations.
Gaza ceasefire agreement repeatedly violated
Governments around the world reacted cautiously to Trump’s invitation to join the initiative. While some of Washington’s Middle Eastern allies have joined, many of its traditional Western allies have so far not. The cost of permanent board membership is $1 billion.
A U.N. Security Council resolution in mid-November authorized the council and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan signed by Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
The commission is designed to oversee the interim governance of Gaza under a Gaza plan unveiled by Trump late last year. Trump has since said the program would expand to resolve conflicts around the world.
A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the planned peace council meeting.
Many human rights experts said a Trump-led commission responsible for foreign territories resembled a colonial structure and criticized it for not including Palestinians. Gaza’s fragile ceasefire has been repeatedly violated, with more than 550 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reportedly killed since the ceasefire began in October.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh, Ismail Shakil and Lucia Mutikani, additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and Anita Komuves; Editing by Sam Holmes and Raju Gopalakrishnan, Sergio Non, Rod Nickel)
