WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Thursday announced $10 billion in United States funding for the “Board of Peace,” his Gaza stability push.
“I want to let you know that the United States is going to make a contribution of $10 billion to the Board of Peace,” he told its inaugural meeting, which gathered around two dozen world leaders and senior officials, including Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
President Trump praised Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who is attending the inaugural summit of the “Board of Peace” to deliberate on issues related to Gaza.
Various other world leaders, along with United States President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance, attended the event.
Addressing the event, Trump again praised PM Sharif. “I like this guy,” he said while recounting the events that led to the ceasefire after last year’s conflict between Pakistan and India in May.
Trump also praised Pakistan’s Chief of Defence Forces and Chief of the Army Staff Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir.
Pakistan, India May conflict
“Prime Minister Sharif, I like this man. There was some fighting going on when I got to know him and your Field Marshal — great general; great Field Marshal. I got to meet the prime minister and he said in front of our Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, he said: ‘Do you know nobody knows but I believe that President Trump saved 25 million lives when he stopped the war between us and India.’ You made that statement,” he said while addressing Premier Sharif.
Referring to the active conflict at the time, Trump said: “Pakistan and India; I got on the phone with both of them and I knew them a little bit, actually, I knew PM Modi very well. I got to know Pakistan through a little trade, they were trying to make too good a deal and in the end they got what they wanted and I made a good deal and I got to like them — the prime minister, the Field Marshal, who is a tough man, a good serious fighter and I like good fighters actually.”
Trump said when he got to know about the conflict, “I saw that Pakistan and India were really going at it and then it got worse and worse; many planes were shot down. I called them, ‘Listen I’m not doing trade deals with you two guys if you don’t settle this out. They said: ‘No, no’. I said to both of them: ‘If you don’t do it, I’m not doing a trade deal. We’re not doing a trade deal.’ They do a lot of business with the US and they sort of softened up all of a sudden, there was a little bit of a pullback by one and the other and all of a sudden we worked out a deal.
“These are two very powerful nations, nuclear nations and I don’t want to say what was going to happen but you know, bad things happened.”
‘Board of Peace’
The “Board of Peace”, a transitional governing body created to oversee Gaza and implement the Comprehensive Plan aimed at ending the conflict there, has centralised authority to manage Gaza’s transition, demobilisation and demilitarisation, and it can issue resolutions, form sub-committees, and change civil and criminal laws under the direction and control of its chairman.
It is chaired for life by Trump, giving him wide authority over decisions, appointments, and the direction of operations.
The board oversees a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), a technocratic body of Palestinians, with decision-making power consolidated with the board and its high representative.
The document also outlines the ISF, initially to be led by the US with operational command under a US major general. The ISF will assist in security, humanitarian protection and controlled civilian protection corridors.
