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Seven more countries join the Peace Board

2026-01-21 22:37:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Seven countries, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt, announced they will join US President Donald Trump's Peace Council, according to a joint statement. They will join Israel, which also publicly confirmed its participation earlier.

On Wednesday evening, Trump said Vladimir Putin had also agreed to join, but the Russian president said his country was still considering the invitation.

The board was initially thought to be intended to help end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction. But its proposed charter makes no mention of the Palestinian territory and appears to be designed to replace the functions of the UN.

However, Saudi Arabia said the group of Muslim-majority countries, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia, Pakistan and Qatar, supported the goal of consolidating a permanent ceasefire in Gaza, supporting reconstruction and advancing what they described as a "just and lasting peace."

At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, Trump told reporters that Putin had accepted his invitation to join.

"He was invited, he accepted. A lot of people have accepted," Trump said.

Putin responded quickly, saying the invitation was being considered, Reuters reported. He said Russia was prepared to offer $1 billion in frozen Russian assets and that he saw the board as primarily important for the Middle East.

It is not clear how many countries have been invited to join Trump's new body - Canada and the United Kingdom are among them, but have yet to respond publicly. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Morocco and Vietnam have already signed up.

On Wednesday, the Vatican also confirmed that Pope Leo has received an invitation. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin said the Pope will need time to consider whether to attend.

However, Slovenia's Prime Minister, Robert Golob, said he had rejected the invitation because the body "dangerously interferes with the wider international order."/CNA, translated by BBC