The coffers of the Peace Council that Donald Trump launched during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, appear to remain empty. According to the Financial Times, the international fund created by the World Bank to finance reconstruction projects in Gaza remains empty, according to the newspaper citing four sources with knowledge of the matter.
Read: USA: Trump’s Peace Council “on pause” during war with Iran
When Donald Trump launched the Peace Council during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, he announced massive financial commitments from various states. Initially, member countries of the Council jointly committed to providing $7 billion for Gaza, while the American president promised an additional $10 billion in immediate funding from the US.
Financial Times: “No independent transparency mechanism” in Trump’s Peace Council
However, the official financial mechanism managed by the World Bank and approved by the UN Security Council has not received money from donor countries. Instead, the Council places any money it raises from donations directly into an account at JPMorgan bank, its spokesperson said. And “there is no independent transparency mechanism,” the FT reports.
Donald Trump had announced that for a country to receive a permanent seat on the Peace Council, it must pay one billion dollars. However, major European countries are avoiding this forum, which gives significant weight to America’s historical partners in the Middle East, Trump’s ideological allies, and small countries seeking to attract his attention. Recently, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto ruled out the possibility of his country paying the billion-dollar fee.
Foreign donors hesitant
Moreover, most of the multi-billion commitments made by wealthy Gulf countries, such as Qatar, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, have not been implemented. Foreign donors are hesitant to offer money while the political and military situation in the Gaza Strip remains fluid.
Although the reconstruction fund remains empty, smaller donations allow the Council to cover expenses, such as those for the office of High Representative Nikolai Mladenov. The United Arab Emirates also committed to allocating $100 million for training a new police force in Gaza, but the funds have been frozen.
In April, the UN and EU estimated at €61.3 billion the money required for Gaza’s reconstruction over the next 10 years, in a report prepared in cooperation with the World Bank. For his part, Mladenov warned last week of the danger that the current “status quo,” based on a fragile ceasefire in a divided and destroyed enclave, could become “permanent.”
