Trump invites international leaders to the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council of Gaza

Several world leaders have been invited to attend the inaugural meeting of the Peace Council convened by US President Donald Trump on February 19.

While some countries have agreed to attend, such as Argentina headed by Javier Milei and Hungary led by Viktor Orban, others have refused, including France, Italy, Norway, the Czech Republic and Croatia.

Romanian President Nicusor Dan announced on Facebook on Sunday that he had received an invitation to attend the meeting, but added that his country had not yet made up its mind on whether to participate in the first session of the Peace Council.

It depends on “discussions with our American partners about the format of the meeting for countries like Romania that aren’t actually members of the council but would like to join it on the condition that its charter be revised,” he said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Saturday that he had received an invitation to the meeting and planned to attend.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis announced on Saturday that he had no intention of joining the Peace Council, saying, “We’ll act in consultation with other EU member states… Some said they would not join the council”.

Under the US president’s plan to end the Gaza war, the “National Committee for the Administration of Gaza” will take over the affairs of the Palestinian enclave temporarily under the leadership of Trump’s Peace Council.

But the Council’s charter doesn’t explicitly mention Gaza, and gives it a broader goal of contributing to the resolution of the world’s armed conflicts.

Its preamble implicitly criticizes the UN by asserting that the Peace Council must have the courage to abandon approaches and institutions that have often failed.

This has angered many leaders, most notably French President Emmanuel Macron and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who earlier in the week called for a UN reinforcement in response to the US president’s call.

Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani reiterated that his country won’t join the Peace Council due to constitutional obstacles that cannot be overcome.

“We cannot participate in the peace council due to constitutional restrictions,” Tajani told the Italian news agency on Saturday, as the Italian constitution doesn’t allow for joining an organization led by a single leader.

On Friday, the Brazilian president Lula da Silva, accused Trump of wanting to set himself up as the master of a new United Nations.

Lula defended multilateralism in the face of the progress of unilateralism, lamenting that the UN Charter is being torn apart.

Donald Trump announced the creation of the “Peace Council” at the Davos forum in Switzerland in January.

According to his charter, the Republican president controls everything: he is the only one authorized to invite other leaders and can cancel their participation, unless a two-thirds majority of member states use the veto.

Other points are causing displeasure among other leaders, including the text doesn’t explicitly mention Gaza, and the exorbitant fees to join it, as countries wishing to secure a permanent seat on the Peace Council must pay a fee of $1 billion.