United States President Donald Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace is to convene in “a resort in Cyprus” next week, according to reports on Tuesday, with it believed that its members are looking to “recalibrate”.
Israeli newspaper the Times of Israel reported that the gathering in Cyprus will include representatives from the Board of Peace’s executive board, the Palestinian-run committee for the administration of Gaza, and the office of Nikolay Mladenov, the Bulgarian diplomat appointed by Trump as his high representative for Gaza.
The Cyprus Mail attempted to verify the report, which was later in the evening reproduced by the Cyprus News Agency, but government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis denied any knowledge of such a plan.
Cyprus was one of dozens of countries invited to join the Board of Peace, with Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos saying on the day of the board’s inauguration that the island was waiting for the European Union to form a common position on the matter before taking a decision.
EU members Bulgaria and Hungary did join the board as full members, while Cyprus, in line with the EU’s broad position, in the end decided to attend meetings as an observer.
Since the formation of the Board of Peace in January and the opening of the Rafah border crossing in February, little has happened in the way of progress, though there have been multiple recorded incidences of Israeli Defence Forces soldiers killing Palestinian civilians in the intervening months.
In light of this, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto had in March threatened to rescind his endorsement of the peace plan and resign from the Board of Peace if Palestinians do not benefit from it.
He had initially signed up as a full member of the board, but warned that the peace plan must entail an independent, internationally recognised Palestinian state as its end goal.
On Tuesday, the Times of Israel reported that an “Arab diplomat” from “one of the mediating countries” and a “Palestinian official familiar with the matter” had said that the meeting in Cyprus will constitute a “reset”, which will allow stakeholders to “recalibrate” and “get on the same page”.
However, it also reported that some members of the Board of Peace had “expressed discomfort with the optics of holding a meeting at a Cyprus resort amid the ongoing suffering in Gaza”, and that as such, “a decision was accordingly made to scale back the guest list”.
Regarding the implementation of the Gaza peace plan devised by Trump, Cypriot European Affairs Deputy Minister Marilena Raouna had in April demanded that progress be made, warning that a lack of progress may allow Palestinian insurgent group Hamas to “consolidate control” of the strip.
“There needs to be progress on the implementation of the Gaza peace plan, in the absence of which there is a risk of undermining the fragile political momentum, with all that entails, including providing Hamas with the opportunity to consolidate control,” she said at a European Parliament plenary session.
She said that to this end, the European Union “remains committed to do its part with all the tools at its disposal”.
