Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu has accepted an invitation to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace.
A statement from his office said Netanyahu would become a member of the board “which is to be comprised of world leaders”.
The board was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. But its proposed charter does not mention the Palestinian territory and appears to be designed to supplant functions of the UN.
The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have also agreed to join, as have Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam. Many others have expressed reservations.
It is unclear how many countries have been invited to join Trump’s new body -Canada, Russia, Turkey and the UK are among them, but have not yet publicly responded.
Norway has said it will not join because the current proposal “raises a number of questions”, while France and Sweden have indicated they will do the same.
According to a copy of the charter leaked to the media, member states will be given a renewable three-year term, but they can secure a permanent place if they contribute $1bn (£740m) of funding to the board.
The document says the Board of Peace will be “an international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”. It will “undertake such peace-building functions in accordance with international law”, it adds.
Trump will be the chairman but also “separately serve” as representative of the US. A US official has said the chairmanship can be held by Trump “until he resigns it”, but that a future US president may choose a new representative.
As chairman, he will have “exclusive authority to create, modify or dissolve subsidiary entities as necessary or appropriate to fulfil the Board of Peace’s mission”, according to the document.
He will also select “leaders of global stature” to serve two-year terms on an Executive Board that will help deliver the mission of the Board of Peace, US officials say.
