By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received an invitation from President Donald J. Trump to join a new international board intended to oversee the reconstruction and governance of postwar Gaza, the Foreign Office said on Sunday, as the United States works to pull together an international group for a territory left in ruins by more than two years of Israeli attacks.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif got the invitation as Trump moves into the next stage of his 20-point plan for Gaza, a proposal that has stirred debate with its focus on economic growth under American oversight. The so-called Board of Peace, with Trump as its chairman, is envisioned as a body that could extend beyond temporary supervision of Gaza, potentially challenging the authority of the United Nations.
“The prime minister of Pakistan has received the invitation from the president of the United States to join the Board of Peace on Gaza,” Tahir Andrabi, a spokesman for the Foreign Office, said in response to questions from reporters. He added that Pakistan would keep working with world efforts to bring peace and safety to Gaza, aiming for a long-term fix to the Palestinian question that lines up with United Nations resolutions.
Pakistan has long backed the Palestinians’ push for their own state, along with calls to shield civilians, stop the fighting right away, let aid flow freely and start rebuilding. Last month, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar made clear that the country’s civilian and military heads agreed against putting Pakistani troops in Gaza to take weapons from Hamas, but added that Pakistan stood ready to help the US plan in other ways.
Analysts in Islamabad called the invitation a sign of Pakistan’s rising place on the world stage, the fruit of steady diplomatic work by both government and military sides. They said it showed the country as a steady hand committed to real answers, not tied to any one side or group. “Pakistan’s participation or positive response is not based on bloc or camp politics, but on practical support to alleviate the suffering caused by the atrocities against the Palestinian people — especially the innocent and unarmed civilians of Gaza — and to back a just and sustainable solution,” one analyst said.
The invitation lets Pakistan go past just talk and get involved for real, the analyst added, by speaking up in global meetings to stop the human suffering and bring its firm views to choices that touch Palestinian lives directly.“Participation by the Government of Pakistan/the Prime Minister on this important board provides an opportunity to stand shoulder to shoulder with the Muslim Ummah and fulfill a shared humanitarian and Islamic responsibility,” another noted. “We are neither spectators nor silent on the issue of Palestine,” the analyst continued. “As a responsible state, we seek to play our part in supporting the oppressed, promoting humanitarian compassion, and pursuing a justice-based political solution.”
The White House unveiled initial members of the board on Friday, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, World Bank President Ajay Banga, and Mr. Trump’s senior advisers Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff. A separate executive board features figures like Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Sigrid Kaag, Israeli-Cypriot billionaire Yakir Gabay and Reem Al-Hashimy, the United Arab Emirates’ minister for international cooperation. Notably absent from the lineup are any Palestinians, and the White House indicated that additional members would be named in the weeks ahead.
The board is meant to handle things like improving how Gaza is run, building ties in the region, fixing what’s broken, drawing in money and rounding up big funds. A working version of the board’s rules, sent to about 60 countries like Turkey, Egypt, Argentina, Indonesia, Italy, Morocco, Britain, Germany, Canada and Australia, says members start with three-year spots that the chairman can renew. But nations that put in over $1 billion in the first year get to stay on without a time limit. The rules don’t name Gaza outright, which has led some to think Mr. Trump wants the board to handle wider matters, maybe as a stand-in for the United Nations.
Leaders who got asked have reacted in different ways. Argentina’s President Javier Milei shared a picture of his letter on X and called it “an honour” to join. A spokesman for Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was named a “founding member.” Egypt’s Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty said they were looking over an ask for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In Canada, an aide to Prime Minister Mark Carney said he planned to say yes. Blair told Agence France-Presse in a statement that “I thank President Trump for his leadership in establishing the Board of Peace and am honoured to be appointed to its Executive Board.”
Blair’s inclusion has drawn scrutiny, given his involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Britain’s imperial legacy in the Middle East. He previously served as the envoy for the Middle East Quartet — comprising the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia — after stepping down from Downing Street in 2007. Trump said last year he wanted to be sure Blair would work for all sides.
Israeli officials have voiced objections to the board’s makeup, particularly Fidan’s role, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stated that it had not been consulted and that the composition clashed with Israeli policy. Israel has long resisted Turkish involvement in Gaza affairs.
The announcements followed the inaugural meeting in Cairo on Friday of a Palestinian committee of technocrats tasked with governing Gaza during a transitional period. Led by Ali Shaath, a former deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority, the group outlined plans to clear war debris by dumping it into the Mediterranean Sea and to restore infrastructure within three years.
Ali Shaath, once a deputy minister in the Palestinian Authority, heads it and has big ideas like pushing bomb rubble into the sea and getting things back up in three years. Kushner was there, after teaming with Witkoff on this for months. Israel and Hamas both agreed to Trump’s plan, which sets up this expert group watched by the international board during a shaky truce that started in October. Rights advocates call the whole setup a throwback to colonial times, with Trump in charge of another nation’s governance.
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