Trump’s sweeping ambitions for the peace council have sparked renewed support for the United Nations

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump’s latest attempt to boycott the United Nations through his new Peace Board appears to have inadvertently backfired after major world powers rejected U.S. aspirations for a larger international mandate outside the Gaza ceasefire and recommitted their support to the 80-year-old global body.

The board, to be chaired by Trump, was originally envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing his plans for Gaza’s future. But the Republican president’s ambitions extend to envisioning the board as a mediator of global conflicts, a not-so-subtle attempt to eclipse the Security Council, which is charged with ensuring international peace and security.

The board’s charter also says Trump will lead it until he resigns, with veto power over its actions and membership, causing some frustration.

His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, tried to ease concerns by saying the board’s focus was now on the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire plan.

“This is not a replacement for the United Nations, but the United Nations has served very little purpose in the case of Gaza other than food aid,” Rubio said at a congressional hearing on Wednesday.

But Trump’s promotion of a broader mandate and his floating of the idea that the Peace Council could replace the United Nations have led to the removal of key players and the dismissal of UN officials.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday, “In my opinion, the basic responsibility for international peace and security lies with the United Nations, with the Security Council.” “Only the Security Council can adopt decisions that are binding on all, and no other body or other coalition can legally require all member states to comply with peace and security decisions.”

In Security Council statements, public speeches and behind closed doors, US allies and opponents have described Trump’s latest plan to overturn the post-World War II international order as a “bold new approach to global conflict resolution”.

“The US rollout of a very broad board of the Peace Charter turned the whole exercise into a liability,” according to Richard Gowan of the International Crisis Group, UN observer and program director. “Countries that wanted to sign on to help Gaza saw the board turn into a Trump fan club. That was not attractive.”

“If Trump had kept the board’s focus solely on Gaza, many states would have signed up, including some Europeans,” he said.

Key members of the Security Council have not signed

The other four veto-wielding members of the Security Council – China, France, Russia and the United Kingdom – have not indicated whether they will join Trump’s board, as economic powers such as Japan and Germany.

The letters sent this month coincided with Trump’s invitation to various world leaders to become “founding members” of the peace board over NATO ally Denmark’s annexation of the semi-autonomous region of Greenland and vow to punish some European countries that resist. That was met with strong rebuttals from Canada, Denmark and others, who said Trump’s demands threatened to upset one of the West’s staunchest alliances.

Shortly after, Trump pulled a dramatic reversal on Greenland, saying he had agreed with NATO’s secretary general on “the outline of a future agreement” on Arctic security.

Amid the diplomatic chaos, British Prime Minister Keir Starr, who at the time did not respond to Trump’s invitation to the Peace Council, met with Guterres in London and reiterated “the UK’s continued support for the UN and international rules-based system”, according to a statement.

Starmer emphasized the UN’s “crucial role in solving global problems that shape life in the UK and around the world”. The United Kingdom later declined to join the board.

France, Spain and Slovenia rejected Trump’s proposal, citing its overlapping and potentially conflicting agenda with the United Nations.

French President Emmanuel Macron said last week that the board “goes beyond the framework of Gaza and raises serious questions, especially regarding the principles and structure of the United Nations, which cannot be questioned.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said Spain would not join the board because it excluded the Palestinian Authority and the body was “outside the United Nations framework”.

Some countries are calling for a stronger United Nations

America’s adversaries have also abandoned the board.

“No single country should dictate terms based on its strength, and a winner-take-all approach is unacceptable,” China’s UN ambassador, Fu Kong, told a Security Council meeting on Monday.

He called for the UN to be strengthened, not weakened, and said the status and role of the Security Council was “irreplaceable”.

In an apparent reference to the Peace Council, Fu said, “We will not cherry-pick our commitment to the organization, nor will we bypass the United Nations and create alternative mechanisms.”

So far, 26 of the nearly 60 invited countries have joined the board, and about nine European countries have declined. India did not attend Trump’s signing ceremony at the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos, Switzerland last week, but is said to be still deciding what to do. Trump has rejected the invitation of Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“It is not surprising that very few governments want to join Trump’s wannabe-UN, which so far looks more like a pay-to-play club for human rights abusers and war crimes suspects than a serious international organization,” said Louis Charbonneau, UN director for Human Rights Watch. “Instead of handing Trump a $1 billion check to join his peace board, the government should work to strengthen the United Nations”

The eight Muslim nations that agreed to join the board issued a joint statement endorsing their mission in Gaza and the development of a Palestinian state. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates made no mention of Trump’s global peace plan.

The Crisis Group’s Gowan said their focus may be on “getting a foothold in the Gaza discussion” first, as Trump’s cease-fire plan has already faced several hurdles.

“I believe this is a real long-term threat to the United Nations,” Gowan said.