Albanese will ‘respectfully’ consider Trump’s invitation to join Gaza peace board

1 month ago 16

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he will consider whether to accept an invitation to join United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza peace board, as tensions flare between Israel and the US over its composition.

Albanese, one of several world leaders who has received an invitation to join the new body, said he had received correspondence from the White House on Sunday night. “We will consider all of these approaches respectfully, and through our proper processes,” Albanese told ABC radio on Monday morning.

US President Donald Trump has invited Anthony Albanese to join his Gaza peace board.

Albanese added that he had been focused on the early return of parliament to pay tribute to the victims of the Bondi terror attack and introduce legislation on gun control and tackling antisemitism.

Trump has invited the leaders of Egypt, Turkiye and Jordan to join his Board of Peace, created to oversee the post-war transition in Gaza as part of his 20-point peace plan unveiled last October.

Other world leaders including Argentina’s President Javier Milei and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney have also been invited to join the board. It is unclear exactly how many world leaders have been invited, but dozens appear to be on the list.

Trump has described the grouping as the “greatest and most prestigious board ever assembled, at any time, any place”.

Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles on Monday said that Australia welcomed the invitation from Trump, and would be talking about it with the United States.

“That invitation has just come in,” Marles told the ABC. “We certainly welcome the invitation, as we do welcome all the efforts of the Trump administration to bring about peace in the Middle East.

“We really need to see an end to the conflict there for humanitarian assistance to flow and for that part of the world to be rebuilt. In terms of the specific request, we’ll continue to talk that through with America to properly understand what this means and what’s involved, but we very much welcome the invitation.”

Bloomberg News reported on Sunday that the Trump administration has asked countries to contribute at least $1 billion collectively to become permanent members of the peace board, while a non-permanent membership would remain free.

The Israeli government has complained that some of the prospective peace board appointments were “not coordinated with Israel and were contrary to its policy”.

Separately, Trump has also announced a “founding executive board” that he will chair, to focus on investment and foreign relations. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will sit on the seven-member board, along with Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former British prime minister Tony Blair.

A separate National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) will oversee day-to-day affairs in Gaza.

Trump’s evolving peace plan has been greeted by scepticism, including by those who initially cautiously welcomed his vision.

Palestinian-American commentator Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, said on X that the Board of Peace had come from a brilliant idea that “could have been the beginning of a new republic”.

But he said it was instead a “vanity project that’ll ensure Hamas’ survival & create a playfield for crony capitalism despite the Palestinian technocrats being well-intentioned”.

More to come