Gian Ehrenzeller / EPA
Donald Trump’s speech at the Peace Council in Davos
Despite promises of millionaire financing, the bank account of the so-called “Peace Council” promoted by Donald Trump for the reconstruction of Gaza continues to have a zero balance in the bank account.
The “Peace Council” created by Donald Trump to rebuild Gaza is immersed in a series of legal problems and its bank account has a zero balance, despite billion-dollar promises of financing, a source close to the case told AFP.
Created from scratch in January by Trump, who is supposed to direct it personally even after leaving the White House, and for which the North American president and more than 50 nations (but not the European Union), the Council didn’t receive a single dollarsaid the source.
The fund, administered by the World Bank and approved by the UN, was designed to reconstruction and development phasewhich has not yet started, pointed to this source to explain the lack of funding.
The Council itself highlighted, in a message on social media, that this fund is “just one of several financing mechanisms that have not yet been used by the donor community.”
According to , the Council received small donations directly into a JPMorgan bank account, which allowed it to pay for the office of the Council’s “High Representative”, Nikolai Mladenov.
This mechanism to rebuild Gaza, where Israel and Hamas established a ceasefire in October under pressure from the United States, was designed according to the Trump criteria.
EU countries walked away from the forumwhich grants ample space to the United States’ historical partners in the Middle East, Donald Trump’s ideological allies and small countries interested in attracting his attention.
Two South American presidents, the Argentine Javier Miley and the Paraguayan Santiago Peña, enthusiastically supported the initiative by Donald Trump. However, the enthusiasm has diminished when it became public that a permanent place on the Council cost a billion dollarsto be managed exclusively by Trump.
The President of Indonesia, Prabowo Subiantoruled out the possibility of his country paying the required amount.
The Peace Council “account for your finances” to the board of directors itself, made up of members of the Trump administration and other advisors, “when considered appropriate”, added the source cited by AFP.
The United Arab Emirates allocated 100 million dollars to set up a new police force in Gaza, but resources remain frozen.
In April, the United Nations and the European Union estimated reconstruction needs for the next ten years in Gaza at US$71.4 billion, according to a study carried out in conjunction with the World Bank.
