Name: Tony Blair and Marco Rubio among names on Donald Trump’s Gaza 'Board of Peace' | BBC News
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President Donald Trump has named a Board of Peace to oversee post war Gaza.

Sir Tony Blair, private equity boss Mark Robin and the US President's son in law Jared Kushner will be among its members.

The names also include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and

a US National Security Adviser, Robert Gabriel.

All members will oversee Trump's 20 point peace plan for Gaza.

Our North America correspondent, David Willis has the latest.

A former envoy to the Middle East, Sir Tony Blair's appointment to Donald Trump's Board of Peace is nonetheless controversial.

There were reports as recently as last month that he'd been sidelined following objections from several Muslim and Arab states over his role in the U.

The release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas marked the first phase of Donald Trump's plan to end the conflict in Gaza.

Phase two involves cementing a fragile ceasefire and rebuilding a territory devastated by more than two years of war, overseen by this new Board of Peace chaired by Donald Trump.

The board's seven founder members include both the President's son in law, Jared Kushner, and

his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who together were credited with brokering the recent ceasefire in Gaza.

Other members include the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, another of Mr.

Trump's trusted aides on his Truth social social media platform.

The President called it the greatest and most prestigious board ever assembled at any.

Yet conspicuous by their absence are any Palestinian or Arab names.

The White House has said additional appointments will follow from the ruins that now constitute Gaza.

Donald Trump has talked of creating a Riviera style resort destination, yet the territory's immediate future remains deeply uncertain.

Israel and Hamas have each accused the other of violating the current ceasefire and Hamas has yet to publicly commit to a full disarmament in Gaza.

Stephen Zunez is the Director of Middle East Studies at the University of San Francisco.

He told me what he makes of the newly announced board.

Well, it seems that it includes a number of people who aren't exactly considered objective personalities when it comes to Israel.

We've had Jared Kushner who has talked openly about ethically cleansing the territory and because of the valuable resort property.

Marco Rubio, who is steadfastly opposed two state solution, believe all the land belongs to Israel, has even supported the settlements and of course Donald Trump himself, who's used Palestinian as a pejorative against political opponents and the like.

And so I think given that you're not going to have any Palestinians on this committee, and

they did not turn it over to the Palestine Authority, which is the recognized government of Palestine by 157 countries.

I'm afraid many Palestinians across the political spectrum see this as kind of a neocolonial setup.

Do you think the board will have the confidence of some Palestinians, Arab leaders, and

But again, I think with the lack of Arab representation and with people who are, or hostile to even the most modest of Palestinian aspirations, it may just really feed Hamas's narrative, you know, that the world is stacked against them and they need to embrace this kind of extremism.

And the good thing, of course, is that if they are able to establish some kind of technocratic authority and so that Hamas is no longer the governing entity in Gaza, I mean, obviously that's a step forward.

And if it also inhibits Israel from its ongoing violations of cease fire, that's obviously a positive thing as well.

But in terms of the longer range plans of bringing real peace and security, let alone justice, I'm relatively, relatively skeptical of this.

The makeup of this committee, of course, the Trump administration will say that it has brought about the ceasefire that's now in place and that is committed to the reconstruction of Gaza.

You mentioned the Palestinian technocratic committee that will be set up under this plan.

I mean, Trump very much likes to control things.

again, he's been not very supportive of any kind of Palestinian self governance.

At the same time, if they do seem to be the kind of people who are serious about reconstruction and rebuilding the area in a way that meets the needs of the population, as opposed to a kind of disaster capitalism, if you will, in which Trump and his cronies might try to take advantage of the situation for financial gains, I think it could move things forward because people are desperate right now.

They've had decades of siege and misgovernment and repression by Hamas.

So any sense of normalcy, any kind of moving forward, obviously would be a positive development.

The thoughts of Professor Zunez from the University of San Francisco there.

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Tony Blair and Marco Rubio among names on Donald Trump’s Gaza 'Board of Peace' | BBC News

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