Trump's Board of Peace 'on pause' during Iran war - The Times

Key activities of President Trump’s Board of Peace to advance the Gaza process appear to have stalled as disquiet grows in Muslim member nations about the Iran war.

Diplomatic sources say the board’s talks with Hamas on the handover of weapons seem to be paused while Indonesia, the world’s largest Muslim nation that offered 8,000 peacekeeping troops for Gaza, has said its involvement is “on hold”.

Several Islamic nations that joined Trump’s multilateral body are facing domestic pressure about participation, with demonstrations in Jakarta against the Board of Peace at the weekend, while opposition parties in Pakistan have united around a call to suspend membership.

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Gaza was the springboard for Trump to set up the Board of Peace, with him in the role of chairman for life, as an alternative to the United Nations, with a mission to bring peace to “hotspots around the world”. At its inaugural meeting in Washington in February, about $7 billion was pledged by predominantly Gulf state members to bank accounts controlled by the US-dominated executive board for Gaza’s reconstruction.

Indonesia was the first member nation to go public with qualms about the US launching a military assault on Iran, nine days after President Prabowo attended the first Washington meeting of the Board of Peace.

“All discussions related to the Board of Peace are on hold,” the Indonesian foreign minister Sugiono said. Indonesia continues “to consult with our partners, including colleagues in the Gulf, as they have also been affected by attacks and are members of the board”, he added.

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Prabowo, who was described by Trump at the board meeting as “definitely tough — I don’t want to fight him”, has since launched his own peace initiative, offering to mediate between Tehran and Washington, so far to no avail.

A White House official denied there had been any pause in the Board of Peace process. “Discussions on disarmament are ongoing and positive. All of the mediators agree that this is a critical step to enable rebuilding for the people of Gaza,” the official said.

A Palestinian official close to Board of Peace efforts to advance the Gaza peace process told Reuters that Hamas had been expected to hold talks with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators on the day the US and Israel attacked Iran. The meeting was abandoned and no new date was set, the source added.

A Hamas official said that talks on Trump’s Gaza plan were currently frozen, while another source close to the process described the pause as a minor delay caused by flight disruptions arising from the conflict that prevented mediators travelling around the region.