TÁNAISTE SIMON HARRIS has said he personally can’t envisage Ireland participating in Donald Trump’s so-called ‘Board of Peace’. 

The organisation was first mentioned as part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan for a ceasefire in Gaza last September.

The plan said the board would “set the framework and handle the funding for the redevelopment of Gaza” until the Palestinian Authority had reformed.

However, its charter does not limit its role to Gaza. It describes the board as an “international organisation that seeks to promote stability, restore dependable and lawful governance, and secure enduring peace in areas affected or threatened by conflict”.

Trump has invited around 50 world leaders to join the board, including allies and adversaries. According to the White House, around 35 have taken up the offer so far.

Nineteen countries were represented at today’s signing ceremony: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bulgaria, Hungary, Indonesia, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Mongolia, Morocco, Pakistan, Paraguay, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.

Asked if Ireland will consider joining, Harris said it is his personal view and the view of many of his government colleagues that ”as currently constructed, I can’t see any scenario in which Ireland can participate in the so-called Board of Peace”.

He went on to state:

“Let me also be very clear, what we’re seeing today at this signing ceremony could not be further removed from that original conversation [around the Gaza peace plan]… the lack of reference to Gaza, and there are very serious red flags.”

He said anything Russian President Vladimir Putin is considering joining, which relates to peace, “doesn’t sit well”, said the Tánaiste. 

€1 billion price tag

The cost to join the new board is €1 billion, another aspect of it that Harris said does not bode well with him. 

“Also, I think anything that in any way seeks to undermine, replace, usurp, the United Nations is not something that government would support. I don’t think it’s something that Dáil Eireann or the people of Ireland would support as well,” he added. 

The “very significant governance issues” surrounding how the board will operate is also something the Tánaiste highlighted in the Dáil today, stating that the charter suggests that the President of the United States, who is the current incumbent, would be the chair.

That person would also have the ability to designate his successor, to appoint, remove and renew members of the executive, said Harris. 

“So there’s a whole range of very serious issues here,” said Harris.

“No European leader has turned up at the signing ceremony, bar President Trump’s ally, Prime Minister Orban of Hungary. So no European country has turned up today, and it’s our expectation that at the European Council dinner this evening of European heads of State and heads of government, this issue will further be considered,” said Harris.

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Harris said that Europe needs to support the primacy of the United Nations and get the focus back on phase two of the peace place for Gaza.

European meeting today

When pushed for a definitive answer whether Ireland would consider taking up a place on Trump’s peace board, Harris said process does matter and the Irish government is taking the opportunity to sit down its European colleagues today in Brussels to discuss and tease through a European response to global issues, including the Peace Board plan.

Earlier this week, Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee confirmed Ireland had been invited to join the board, but said: “We will need to give this careful consideration.”

McEntee said the US-organised board “would have a mandate wider than the implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan”.

“The United Nations has a unique mandate to maintain international peace and security, and the legitimacy to bring nations together to find common solutions to shared challenges,” she said. 

Speaking to RTÉ News at the WEF in Davos today, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that the government is currently “examining” the invitation to the board.

“There are issues that we will examine in respect of it,” Martin told RTÉ.

“Our principal focus at the moment is to try and contribute to the peace process in the Middle East, given our own experience in conflict resolution, and we believe that the level of humanitarian aid is not going in to the degree that it should, that would be a strong point that we will be making,” he added.