UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Donald Trump’s ambition for the “Board of Peace” to play a role in global conflicts beyond Gaza appears to be the latest U.S. attempt to sidestep the U.N. Security Council, raising new questions about the relevance of the 80-year-old world body and uncertainty about its future as a primary force in brokering peace worldwide.
Trump is establishing the board, to be composed largely of invited heads of state, as the U.N. has embarked on major reforms intended to modernize an organization founded on the ashes of World War II and make it a more viable global player in the 21st century.
A decades-long reform effort gained new impetus after the Trump administration last year set out to eliminate billions of dollars in funding to international organizations and humanitarian assistance at large.
Cutting life-saving humanitarian efforts, consolidating major agencies and moving personnel out of New York headquarters are just a few of the changes the U.N. has made as it courts continued support from the U.S., traditionally its largest donor.
Trump and his allies have blasted the organization for not reaching its full potential and accused it of having “bloated” and redundant agencies that push “woke” ideology. The U.S. refused to pay its mandatory dues to the U.N. last year.
The Security Council — the U.N.’s most powerful body with the clout to authorize military action — has failed in recent years to end wars, including in Gaza and Ukraine. It's a point Trump has hit on since the beginning of his second term and he did so again several times this week.
“The U.N. just hasn’t been very helpful. I’m a big fan of the U.N.’s potential, but it has never lived up to its potential,” Trump told reporters during a White House press briefing. “The U.N. should have settled every one of the wars that I settled. I never went to them. I never even thought to go to them.”
Despite his complaints, he added that “I believe you got to let the U.N. continue, because the potential is so great.”
The Security Council in November authorized the Board of Peace to serve as a transitional body to oversee a U.S.-brokered ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, as Trump proposed. But in forming the board, he has described its role as a mediator for other global conflicts, a potential rival to the U.N. Security Council.
Retired U.S. Ambassador Robert Wood, who served at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations under Republican and Democratic leaders, said if Trump is trying to replace the Security Council with a Board of Peace dealing with issues beyond Gaza, “I don’t think there’s going to be a lot of interest.”
“What I would say to U.N. member states, including the United States: Let’s try to work together to try to make the United Nations a better instrument. It really is the best instrument we have, given all its warts,” Wood told The Associated Press. “But trying to recreate something new in this type of era, with all the divisions that exist and the fact that most of the developing world puts a lot of emphasis on the United Nations and the conflict resolution mechanism, I just don’t see how this would work.”
U.N. officials on Wednesday dismissed concerns, saying it is unlikely that decades of multilateral peacebuilding with the participation of more than 190 member countries could be replaced.
“There have been any number of organizations — regional organizations, defense alliances and others — that have coexisted with the U.N. over the 80 years that the U.N.’s been in existence,” Farhan Haq, U.N. deputy spokesperson, said Wednesday.
He added, “It’s too early to tell what the Board of Peace will look like.”
It was not immediately clear how many countries would accept Trump's invitation to join the board.
Eight Muslim countries — including Qatar, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates — accepted the invitation on Wednesday but reaffirmed their commitment in a joint statement to support the board’s original mission aimed at advancing peace and reconstruction in Gaza and the Palestinians’ right to statehood.
France, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, has said it will not accept Trump's invitation, while the three other members with vetoes — Russia, China and Britain — are still assessing it.
As of Wednesday, Norway, Sweden and Slovenia had also declined. Slovenia's main concern was that the board's mandate is too broad and it could seriously undermine the international order based on the U.N. Charter.
One European diplomat told The Associated Press that EU countries “feels a bit awkward” about the effort and would prefer that there be discussions on the Board of Peace plan regarding Gaza before engaging on this broader initiative.
In a stark speech in Davos on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the rules-based order is fading.
“The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers have relied ... the very architecture of collective problem solving, are under threat,” he said, singling out the United Nations among others. “And as a result, many countries are drawing the same conclusions — that they must develop greater strategic autonomy, in energy, food, critical minerals, in finance and supply chains.”
Guterres, asked by the BBC on Monday if the United Nations can survive the Trump presidency, replied: “I have no doubt about it.”
“I have a lot of confidence in the future of humankind, and I'm fighting as much as I can in order to make sure the U.N. is part of that renewal that I believe will become inevitable,” he said.
President Donald Trump during a meeting with President of the Swiss Confederation Guy Parmelin during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
UN Secretary General António Guterres is welcomed by Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer to 10 Downing Street, London, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (Henry Nicholls/Pool Photo via AP)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday inaugurated his Board of Peace to lead efforts at maintaining a ceasefire in Israel's war with Hamas, insisting that “everyone wants to be a part” of the body that could eventually rival the United Nations — despite many U.S. allies opting not to participate.
In a speech at the World Economic Forum, Trump sought to create momentum for a project to map out a future of the war-torn Gaza Strip that has been overshadowed this week, first by his threats to seize Greenland, then by a dramatic retreat from that push.
“This isn’t the United States, this is for the world,” he said, adding, “I think we can spread it out to other things as we succeed in Gaza.”
The event featured Ali Shaath, the head of a new, future technocratic government in Gaza, announcing that the Rafah border crossing will open in both directions next week. That's after Israel said in early December it would open the crossing, which runs between Gaza and Egypt, but has yet to do so.
Shaath, an engineer and former Palestinian Authority official from Gaza, is overseeing the Palestinian committee set to govern the territory under U.S. supervision.
The new peace board was initially envisioned as a small group of world leaders overseeing the ceasefire, but it has morphed into something far more ambitious — and skepticism about its membership and mandate has led some countries usually closest to Washington to take a pass.
Trump tried not to let those not participating ruin his unveiling party, saying 59 countries had signed onto the board — even though heads of state, top diplomats and other officials from only 19 countries plus the U.S. actually attended. He told the group, ranging from Azerbaijan to Paraguay to Hungary, “You’re the most powerful people in the world."
Trump has spoken about the board replacing some U.N. functions and perhaps even making that entire body obsolete one day. But he was more conciliatory in his remarks on the sidelines of the forum in the Swiss alps.
“We’ll do it in conjunction with the United Nations,” Trump said, even as he denigrated the U.N. for doing what he said wasn't enough to calm some conflicts around the globe.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that some countries’ leaders have indicated they plan to join but still require approval from their parliaments, and the Trump administration says it has also gotten queries about membership from countries that hadn’t been invited to participate yet.
Big questions remain, however, about what the eventual board will look like.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said his country is still consulting with Moscow’s “strategic partners” before deciding to commit. The Russian president on Thursday is due to host Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for talks in Moscow.
Others are asking why Putin and other authoritarian leaders had even been invited to join. Britain’s foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said her country wasn't signing on “because this is about a legal treaty that raises much broader issues.”
“And we do also have concerns about President Putin being part of something which is talking about peace, when we have still not seen any signs from Putin that there will be a commitment to peace in Ukraine,” she told the BBC.
Norway and Sweden have indicated they won’t participate, after France also said no. French officials stressed that while they support the Gaza peace plan, they were concerned the board could seek to replace the U.N. as the main venue for resolving conflicts.
Canada, Ukraine, China and the executive arm of the European Union also haven't committed. Trump calling off the steep tariffs he threatened over Greenland could ease some allies' reluctance, but the issue is still far from settled.
The Kremlin said Thursday that Putin plans to discuss his proposal to send $1 billion to the Board of Peace and use it for humanitarian purposes during his talks with Abbas. But it noted that the use of those assets will require the U.S. action to unblock them.
The idea for the Board of Peace was first laid out in Trump's 20-point Gaza ceasefire plan and even was endorsed by the U.N. Security Council.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced he’s agreed to join, after his office has earlier criticized the makeup of the board’s committee tasked with overseeing Gaza.
Months into the ceasefire, Gaza’s more than 2 million Palestinians continue to suffer the humanitarian crisis unleashed by more than two years of war. And violence in Gaza, while not at the same level as before the October ceasefire and hostage deal was agreed on, continues.
Key to the truce continuing to hold is the disarming of Hamas, something that the militant group that has controlled the Palestinian territory since 2007 has refused to do and that Israel sees as non-negotiable. Trump on Thursday repeated his frequently mentioned warnings that the group will have to do so or face dire consequences.
He also said the war in Gaza “is really coming to an end” while conceding, “We have little fires that we'll put out. But they're little,” and they had been “giant, giant, massive fires.”
Trump's push for peace also comes after he threatened military action this month against Iran as it carried out a violent crackdown against some of the largest street protests in years, killing thousands of people.
Trump, for the time being, has signaled he won't carry out any new strikes on Iran after he said he received assurances that the Islamic government would not carry out the planned hangings of more than 800 protesters.
But Trump also made the case that his tough approach to Tehran — including strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities in June last year — was critical to the Israel-Hamas ceasefire deal coalescing. Iran was Hamas' most important patron, providing the group hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid, weapons, training and financial support over the years.
Trump also spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who arrived in Davos. Trump, who continues to struggle to get Zelenskyy and Putin to agree to terms to end their nearly 4-year-old war, has repeatedly expressed frustration with both sides.
“I believe they’re at a point now where they can come together and get a deal done,” Trump said Wednesday. “And if they don’t, they’re stupid — that goes for both of them.”
Madhani and Weissert reported from Washington.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for a meeting on the sidelines of the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump, right, greets leaders as he arrives for a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump, center, holds up a signed Board of Peace charter during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump holds the charter during a signing ceremony on his Board of Peace initiative at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
President Donald Trump speaks after the signing of a Board of Peace charter during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump holds the charter during a signing ceremony on his Board of Peace initiative at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
President Trump stands on the podium at the beginning a session on the Board of Peace initiative of US President Donald Trump at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)
President Donald Trump arrives for a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
From right, Ayman Al Safadi, Deputy PM of of Jordan, Prabowo Subinato, President of Indonesia, Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Rossen Jeliazkov, Ilham Aliyev, President Donald Trump President of Azerbaijan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Nikol Pashinyan, Prime Minister of Armenia and Javier Milei, President of Argentina pose during a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump speaks during a Board of Peace charter announcement during the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday, Jan. 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
President Donald Trump gestures after his special address during the 56th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum, WEF, in Davos, Switzerland, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 2026. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP)
