00:00And for more on this story, I'm joined by Michael Waheed Hanna, U.S. Program Director at Crisis Group.
00:05Thanks so much for being with us here on France 24.
00:07I want to ask you about the board itself.
00:09But first, is there any indication based on what we saw today that Donald Trump's Board of Peace can help
00:16facilitate the peace process in Gaza,
00:19especially considering that the Palestinians are not even a part of the conversation?
00:24Yeah, I mean, I think to begin with, there have been real questions about the way forward.
00:31There are big unanswered questions on governance, on security, things like the disarmament of Hamas.
00:38And I think people were expectant, some anticipation to hear if there was more of a concrete roadmap about how
00:51to get from the kind of fantastical plans for reconstruction that have been put on the table to implementation.
00:59And I think that's the thing that has been lacking.
01:03And despite the numerous pledges that were mentioned on troop contributions, on funds for reconstruction, there's still a lack of
01:15detail about how to get there.
01:18And so I think we're still quite a ways off from seeing these pledges materialize into concrete facts on the
01:28ground.
01:29Yeah, there was a lot of talk about money today.
01:31We mentioned that Trump, you know, the members have pledged $7 billion for reconstructing Gaza.
01:36But how much of a focus is there on diplomacy and achieving peace here?
01:43Well, I mean, you know, there are big questions on disarmament, say.
01:47This is at the heart of what comes next.
01:50Israel has made it a red line.
01:52Trump has reiterated that point.
01:54And, of course, nothing will materialize in terms of reconstruction funds or deployments without some assurances on this front.
02:05And this is diplomacy, frankly, that just hasn't happened yet.
02:08It has to happen if we are to see this ceasefire move from the current phase two, despite the fact
02:18that there are sort of daily military strikes.
02:21We have seen a taming of the military conflicts.
02:24But if we are to see the ceasefire advance beyond this phase two to phase three, you know, these are
02:33the kinds of questions that have to be answered.
02:35And the diplomacy to get there, frankly, just isn't taking place at the moment.
02:40Now, Trump claimed that members of his board have committed thousands of personnel to a peacekeeping force in Gaza, you
02:47know, 8,000 troops from Indonesia, we heard.
02:49Is there any clarity on how such a force might work?
02:54There's not.
02:55Again, you know, many unanswered questions.
02:57This is one of them.
02:58You know, this the Board of Peace's mandate in Gaza is defined by the United Nations Security Council.
03:05There is a resolution that gives it a kind of specific legal mandate.
03:09So it is well within its rights to operate in Gaza.
03:13But the details of how a stabilization force would work, what would be its rules of engagement, what would be
03:22its specific mandate in the Strip?
03:25These are things that haven't been defined yet and clearly have to be negotiated with the troop contributing countries.
03:32And these are the kinds of questions that remain that I think, you know, make speculation about what comes next
03:44really quite difficult because, again, we have pledges, but very little guidance about how these things would operate in practice.
03:55Can we talk about the funding of this Board of Peace?
03:58You know, for now, many of the leaders who've agreed to pay this $1 billion initiation fee, they run military
04:03regimes or dictatorships.
04:06First of all, what is that money being used for?
04:09You may not know this.
04:10And what do you think these leaders expect in return?
04:15Yeah, I mean, it's notable who is not part of the Board of Peace, of course.
04:21You know, the traditional U.S. allies have not joined.
04:25I think the kind of core Arab group, many of the states who have the most at stake in terms
04:33of seeing Gaza ceasefire succeed, have joined.
04:36And I think that's a reflection of a bet, effectively, that they have made from the beginning of the Trump
04:44administration, which really accelerated after Israel's strike on Hamas officials in Doha in September, which really spurred the ceasefire of
04:56diplomacy.
04:57And the bet is very simple.
04:59These states believe that they need an engaged United States.
05:04They need an engaged Donald Trump and a Donald Trump that is willing to use his influence and leverage with
05:11Israel to move the process forward.
05:14Now, whether that happens, whether U.S. engagement is sustained, whether the United States is willing to work as a
05:22kind of impartial mediator between the parties, again, open questions.
05:27But this is the bet that many of the regional leaders have made, that they want to keep Donald Trump
05:33engaged and focused on a potential peacekeeping, a peacemaking achievement.
05:40And I think there is a hope, at least, that because he has invested his own prestige and credibility in
05:48this effort, that he would be reluctant to see the ceasefire in Gaza collapse under his watch.
05:56OK, we'll have to leave it there.
05:57Michael Waheed Hanna, U.S. Program Director at Crisis Group.
05:59Thanks so much for joining us here on France 24.
06:01We appreciate it.
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