Mr. Trump could offer more details Thursday on his proposed international “Board of Peace” as questions linger over its composition and scope.
The president floated the concept of a Board of Peace last year, as part of a plan brokered by his administration to end the Israel-Hamas war. The board was conceived of as an “international transitional body” that could help oversee a new, technocratic post-Hamas government in the Gaza Strip and fund the Palestinian territory’s redevelopment.
“This body will call on best international standards to create modern and efficient governance that serves the people of Gaza and is conducive to attracting investment,” the peace plan said.
Last week, the White House said the board would play a role in implementing the Gaza peace deal and “providing strategic oversight, mobilizing international resources, and ensuring accountability as Gaza transitions from conflict to peace and development.”
The board is set to be led by an executive committee that includes Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, Mr. Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and World Bank Group President Ajay Banga, among others.
The organization is set to be chaired by Mr. Trump. In a press conference last year, the president said he’s slated to lead the board “not at my request, believe me. I’m very busy. But we have to make sure this works.”
Countries can contribute $1 billion to the Board of Peace to become permanent members instead of having a three-year membership, a U.S. official told CBS News, confirming a Bloomberg report. The official said it isn’t a requirement to contribute to become a member.
The official also told CBS News that any contributions will be used to rebuild Gaza and said “virtually every dollar” raised will be spent on the Board’s mandate. There will be no “exorbitant salaries” or “administrative bloat,” the official said.
CBS News confirmed that more than 50 countries had been invited to join the Board of Peace as of Wednesday. As many as 20 to 25 countries have agreed to join, Witkoff told CNBC. But so far, only a handful have said so publicly.
Among the countries that have said they’re accepting Mr. Trump’s invitation: Israel, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kosovo, the United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Morocco, Hungary, Qatar, Vietnam, Canada, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.
Mr. Trump told reporters that Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted his invite.
Other countries are considering their invitations.
In a joint statement, officials from Qatar, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, the UAE and Saudi Arabia said they welcomed the invitations to join the body.
Norway and Sweden said Wednesday they’re holding off, at least for now, due to concerns about the terms for joining. A source familiar with the matter told CBS News earlier this week that France intended to decline.
“I think we have peace in the Middle East,” Mr. Trump told reporters Wednesday when asked about his Board of Peace and the situation in the wake of the war between Israel and Hamas.
He said the U.S. would know in the next few weeks whether Hamas would disarm — a key criteria of the 20-point ceasefire plan negotiated by the president’s team last year.
“If they don’t do it … they’ll be blown away. Very quickly,” Mr. Trump said.
The president said if the U.S. had not attacked Iran’s nuclear facilities in June last year, a deal would not have been signed.
“They were very close to having a nuclear weapon, and we hit them hard, and it was total obliteration. They may try again, but they have to try from a different area, because that area was obliterated,” Mr. Trump said of Iran.
“If we didn’t do that, there was no chance of making peace” between Israel and Hamas, he said, arguing that countries such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar would not have backed an agreement. “They were afraid. We had a bully. The bully was Iran.”
Mr. Trump said Tuesday the Board of Peace “might” replace the United Nations, an organization the president has regularly criticized for years.
“I mean, the U.N. just hasn’t been very helpful. I’m a big fan of the U.N. potential. But it has never lived up to its potential,” he said in a more than 90-minute press conference.
But he added, “I believe you’ve got to let the U.N. continue because the potential is so great.”
The following day, CNBC’s Sara Eisen noted to Witkoff that “some people say it’s a U.N. alternative.” Responded Witkoff: “No, no, it’s just, it’s a great group of leaders coming together with great opinion and sharing opinion to achieve peace, and that’s what we need.”
Mr. Trump said Wednesday he will not be imposing tariffs on European countries over their objections to his efforts to acquire Greenland, revealing that he and the secretary-general of NATO reached a “framework of a future deal” regarding the island.
The president’s renewed push to take over Greenland for security reasons has rattled U.S. allies. Denmark, a NATO member that oversees Greenland, has ruled out the idea and warned that a U.S. takeover by force would effectively spell the end of the NATO alliance. Last week, Mr. Trump threatened tariffs against countries that decline to “go along with” the plan.
But in an interview with CNBC on Wednesday, the president said “we have a concept of a deal” for Greenland and that he thinks it will be “a very good deal for the United States, also for them.”
He declined to provide specifics of the framework, saying “it’s a little bit complex” and that the U.S. will “explain it down the line.” He did note that the agreement would last “forever.”
Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, later said the day “is ending on a better note than it began,” and called for negotiations to address Mr. Trump’s “security concerns.”
Two diplomatic sources later told CBS News that there is no agreement for U.S. control or ownership of Greenland. American ownership of the territory is still a red line for Greenland and Denmark, the sources said.
The framework of the deal, according to the sources, would consist of ramping up security for Greenland beyond an existing 1951 agreement, allowing the U.S. to establish multiple military bases on the island. The U.S. currently only has one base in operation, Pituffik Space Base.
It would also increase NATO’s role with the specific intent of blocking Russia and China from gaining a foothold on the island, the sources said.
But such a deal would still need to be directly negotiated with Denmark and Greenland.
Mr. Trump addressed the World Economic Forum on Wednesday, dedicating parts of his speech to criticizing several NATO allies and questioning whether the alliance benefits the U.S.
“The United States is treated very unfairly by NATO,” Mr. Trump said of the seven-decade-old alliance. “We give so much, and we get so little in return.”
The president also said at one point: “The problem with NATO is that we’ll be there for them, 100%, but I’m not sure they’ll be there for us.” The clause in NATO’s charter that requires member countries to defend each other has been invoked only once, when the U.S. was attacked on 9/11, and NATO allies did rally around the U.S. and fought in the war on terror.
Mr. Trump specifically criticized Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whom he accused of ingratitude despite getting “a lot of freebies from us,” and the United Kingdom, which he said should take greater advantage of oil underneath the North Sea.
The president also defended his strategy of levying tariffs on foreign imports, and said many Western governments had turned their back on “everything that makes nations rich and powerful and strong.” He argued Europe is “not heading in the right direction.”
Mr. Trump reiterated that he wants the U.S. to take control of Greenland, a semi-autonomous territory of Denmark, though he ruled out using force to take over the island.
“You need the ownership to defend it,” the president said of Greenland. “You can’t defend it on a lease. Number one, legally it’s not defensible in that way, totally. And psychologically, who the hell wants to defend a license agreement or a lease?”
Hours later, the president announced a possible deal over Greenland — though there’s no indication that it will involve the U.S. taking control of the entire territory.
