US-led Board of Peace to hold first meeting of leaders February 19

WASHINGTON - The Board of Peace touted by US President Donald Trump will hold its first leaders meeting on February 19, a US government official confirmed on Saturday, without offering further details.

The planned meeting was first reported by Axios, which said the gathering would also serve as a fundraising conference for the reconstruction of Gaza.

"We can confirm the Board of Peace meeting is scheduled on February 19th," the official said in a statement to Reuters. Further questions were referred to the White House, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The meeting would be held at the US Institute of Peace in Washington, DC, Axios reported.

At least one world leader has confirmed his participation. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, one of Trump's closest allies in the European Union, said at a campaign event on Saturday in the western city of Szombathely that he would go to Washington in two weeks to attend the Board of Peace meeting.

In late January, Trump launched the board that he will chair and which he says will aim to resolve global conflicts, leading to some experts being concerned that such a board could undermine the United Nations.

Gaza ceasefire has been repeatedly violated

Governments around the world have reacted cautiously to Trump's invitation to join the initiative. While some of Washington's Middle Eastern allies have joined, many of its traditional Western allies have thus far stayed away. Permanent membership on the board costs $1 billion.

A UN Security Council resolution, adopted in mid-November, authorized the board and countries working with it to establish an international stabilization force in Gaza, where a fragile ceasefire began in October under a Trump plan on which Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas signed off.

Under Trump's Gaza plan, revealed late last year, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. Trump thereafter said it would be expanded to tackle global conflicts.

A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the planned Board of Peace meeting.

Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory's affairs resembled a colonial structure and have criticized the board for not including a Palestinian. The fragile ceasefire in Gaza has been repeatedly violated, with over 550 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers reported killed since the truce began in October. —Reuters