Israel's Prime Minister 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. However, its proposed charter does not mention the Palestinian territory and appears 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 leaked copy of the charter, member states will receive a renewable three-year term but can secure a permanent place by contributing $1 billion of funding to the board.
The document states that the Board of Peace will be an international organization that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict.
Trump will chair the board and also serve as a representative of the US. A US official stated that the chairmanship can be held by Trump until he resigns it, but a future US president may choose a new representative.
As chairman, Trump will have the authority to create or dissolve subsidiary entities as necessary to fulfill the Board of Peace's mission. He is also tasked with selecting leaders of global stature to serve two-year terms on an Executive Board that will help implement the board's mission.
Last Friday, the White House named the seven founding members of the Executive Board, which include US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Trump also announced Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and former UN Middle East envoy, as the representative on the ground in Gaza during phase two of Trump's peace plan, which aims at reconstruction and demilitarization of the territory including disarmament of Hamas, alongside a complete withdrawal of Israeli forces.
While Netanyahu's office has raised concerns about the Gaza Executive Board having been formed without coordination with Israel, the peace plan's first phase saw a ceasefire and humanitarian aid surge. However, significant challenges remain as the second phase unfolds amidst ongoing violence and the fragility of the ceasefire.
