Board of Peace Archives - CrossFireArarbia

BoP and The Lurking Devil!

Saleem Ayoub Quna
March 5, 2026

Eight months ago and precisely in June 2025, the US and Israel launched their first combined “Midnight Hammer” military operation against Iran, in an attempt to obliterate its controversial nuclear facilities, set since 2018, to be settled through negotiations between the US and Iran. Prior to that strike, not Ukraine nor Venezuela or Greenland, but Gaza was the hottest issue on Trump’ international agenda, as he was applying the final touches on his anticipated peace plan for the devastated tiny strip! On 26 January this year, i.e. nearly a month ago, Trump from Davos, in Switzerland, proudly announced the birth of BoP, “The Board of Peace”, which he would preside over forever.

To enhance his initiative’s chances to succeed, Trump had invited world leaders to join his new born club for peace. Those who responded favorably had little choice to do otherwise, and some of them promised to contribute billions of dollars to make the plan work. Other big shots such as Russia, France or China were either not interested or invited!

The last one to join the club, but reluctantly, was no other than the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, despite his direct involvement in the thick of the matter. Netanyahu thought the plan was naïve and amateurish in more than one aspect! So he would send his Foreign Minister to attend the signing ceremony in Davos, for his own thoughts were focused on other more important issues that would take place later! Regardless of Netanyahu’s caveats, the Trump BoP seemed to be one of few feasible options to stop the violence and killing committed by Israel.

in Gaza, and a shy start towards a peaceful transition in Gaza and beyond despite the many loopholes.
On this occasion Trump said: “This is a big, big day, a beautiful day, potentially one of the great days ever in civilization”. The he added: “I am not talking about Gaza. Gaza is one thing, but we are talking about
much beyond Gaza. The whole deal, everything getting solved. It is called peace in the Middle East”. While this BoP was hailed as an achievement for Trump’s diplomacy, envisaged by his top capable advisor to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and his assistant Jared Kushner, Trump’s trusted son-in-law, it whistled disaster in Netanyahu’s ears.

From this man’s point of view, if the BoP was put on track of the peace train, let alone its arrival at its desired destination, it would mean one thing and nothing else: the end of Gaza tragedy which also meant the end of Netanyahu’s political career. For him, it looked like a trap that he had, knowingly but unwillingly, a role in setting up. At this crucial moment the manipulative devil and the survival instinct in
Netanyahu, were awakened and pushed him to embark on planning a reversal of this momentum. He had to end this nonsense talk about peace for Gaza, let alone beyond! For certain, he regretted his consent to the suspension of the Midnight-Hammer strike back in June against Iran. Now time is running short for him again.

He needs to take a big and last gamble to divert Trump’s current menacing approach to solve the thorny issues in this region. He, prematurely, and ahead of his originally scheduled visit to the US, books
a meeting with Trump at Mar-a-Lago in Florida, thus effecting his sixth meeting with Trump in less than a year!

There, he presents his case: Today, he tells Trump, Iran is the biggest real danger facing Israel and the free world led by the US; Iran is stockpiling an arsenal of all kinds of deadly missiles; the majority of
Iranians want the US to help them topple the regime which is massacring the protesters in the streets; Iranian negotiating team are just buying more time; it is now or a never again chance to finish this
nightmare called Iran, after its proxies in Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Gaza and Lebanon were defeated earlier.
Trump submissively listened, as Netanyahu managed to put a hold on every other item on Trump’s agenda, including his cherished BoP project for which he hoped to be nominated for the Nobel Prize for
peace!

Today as the war against Iran goes into its sixth day, two things and plus are crystal clear; there will be no peace prizes, and there will lot of havoc and chaos on the ground, plus the devil in Netanyahu, will be the happiest breathing creature around, for the time being!

Opinion

Hammering The UN?

Dr Khairi Janbek
February 25, 2026

By Dr Khairi Janbek

Even from the moment of its inception, the UN was subjected to constant criticism and derision. Though it started as a coalition of the willing in order to deal with differences and sources of conflict in a peaceable and/or diplomatic manner, the term willing remained nebulous.

The strong and mighty wanted to bend this will to suit their interests, and the weak and the needy wanted to bend this will for their own protection. Still in this dialectical formula the need for the UN remains as the only viable formula which offers the possibility of negotiations in the Churchillian wisdom of jaw jaw, better than war war, and it remains in this sense, the standard which provides the vaneer for international legality and the semblance of consensus.

Then suddenly and apparently, the concept of the Donald Trump Board of Peace emerged on the scene, thought of, initially, as an effort to deal with the mayhem of Gaza, and to which one may add ironically and cynically, that the most two concerned parties – Palestinians and Israelis – are out of its functioning. On top of this, the notion was propelled in the media that this Board is really an attempt to replace the UN.

So in this context we can assume what is meant is that if the UN started, all these years ago, as a coalition of the willing, today’s Board of Peace is a coalition of the frightened, of states who want to stay on the good side of Trump. This is aside from the reluctant opportunists whom seek some benefits out of becoming a member of this entity.

On the face of it, one can say that the real purpose of its establishment is not to replace the United Nations per se, but a serious attempt to bypass the UN and redefine international relations in accordance with the Trump notion of who is the enemy of peace and who is its friends, with the essential outlook of not needing the international organization at all. Under the new legality, it is Trump who lays down the law, and the one whom distributes the spoils. As for the UN it remains in his eyes as a gathering for losers.

But if we go back to the beginning, in fact the Board of Peace, not only got the blessing of the UN for its creation, but also the support of the Security Council with resolution 2038, but then again, it was linked to the reconstruction and ‘stabilization’ of Gaza, while the current format of the Board emerged on the sidelines of the recent World Economic Forum meetings.

Now irrespective of some in the international community wanting to spite Trump or of waning his influence, there is a serious and big concern that President Trump and the fact that he is presiding over this Board, will mean that the talked about peace will be the peace of the strong imposed by the strong. In itself this rings many alarm bells on the strategic level for many regions in the world about the kind of peace Trump is talking about.

Among the myriad of world conflicts, currently the Palestinian problem, Ukraine war, and Iran, stand out as the most deadly and critical. So in what shape the proposed peace will come?

Dr Janbek is a Jordanian writer based in Paris.