United Nations — President Donald Trump’s ambition to “Peace Council” Playing a role in global conflicts beyond Gaza appears to be the latest American attempt to circumvent the United Nations Security Council, raising new questions about the relevance of the 80-year-old global body and uncertainty about its future as a key force in brokering peace around the world.
Trump is working to establish the board, which will largely consist of invited heads of state, as the United Nations embarks on major reforms aimed at modernizing an organization founded on the ashes of World War II and making it a more viable global player in the 21st century.
Reform efforts have continued for decades gained new momentum After the Trump administration last year began canceling billions of dollars in funding for international organizations and humanitarian aid in general.
Cutting life-saving humanitarian efforts, consolidating major agencies and moving staff from headquarters in New York are just a few of the changes the UN has made as it seeks continued support from the United States, traditionally its largest donor.
Trump and his allies have criticized the organization for not reaching its full potential and accused it of having “bloated” and redundant agencies pushing a “woke” ideology. The United States refused to pay its mandatory dues to the United Nations last year.
The Security Council — the most powerful UN body with the influence to authorize military action — has failed in recent years to end wars, including in Gaza and Ukraine. It is a point Trump has emphasized since the beginning of his second term, and he has done so again several times this week.
“The United Nations has not been very helpful,” Trump told reporters during a White House press conference. “I’m a big fan of the potential of the United Nations, but it has never lived up to its potential.” “All the wars I settled should have been settled by the United Nations. I never went to it. I never even thought of going to it.”
Despite his complaints, he added: “I think you have to let the UN continue, because the potential is so great.”
The Security Council in November authorized the Peace Council to act as a transitional body to oversee the US-brokered ceasefire. The war between Israel and Hamas In Gaza, as Trump suggested. But when the council was formed, it described its role as a mediator in other global conflicts, and a potential rival to the UN Security Council.
Retired US Ambassador Robert Wood, who served in the US mission to the United Nations under Republican and Democratic leaders, said that if Trump was trying to replace the Security Council with a peace council that dealt with issues beyond Gaza, “I don’t think there would be a lot of interest.”
“What I would say to the UN member states, including the United States: Let’s try to work together to try to make the United Nations a better instrument. It’s really the best instrument we have, given all its flaws,” Wood told The Associated Press. “But trying to recreate something new in this kind of era, with all the divisions that exist and the fact that most of the developing world is so focused on the United Nations and the conflict resolution mechanism, I don’t see how that can work.”
UN officials on Wednesday dismissed concerns, saying decades of multilateral peacebuilding involving more than 190 member states were unlikely to be replaced.
“There have been a large number of organizations — regional organizations, defense alliances and others — that have coexisted with the United Nations over the 80 years of the UN’s existence,” Farhan Haq, deputy UN spokesman, said on Wednesday.
He added: “It is too early to know what the peace council will look like.”
It was not immediately clear How many countries He will 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 council’s original mission aimed at promoting peace and reconstruction in Gaza and the Palestinians’ right to statehood.
France, the Security Council member with veto power, said it would not accept Trump’s invitation, while the other three veto-wielding members – Russia, China and Britain – are still evaluating the invitation.
As of Wednesday, Norway, Sweden and Slovenia had also fallen. Slovenia’s main fear was that the Council’s powers were too broad and could seriously undermine the international order based on the UN Charter.
One European diplomat told The Associated Press that EU countries are “a bit embarrassed” about these efforts and would prefer to have discussions on the peace council’s plan for Gaza before participating in this broader initiative.
In a stark speech in Davos on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney warned that the rules-based order was fading.
“The multilateral institutions on which the middle powers relied…the structure of collective problem-solving are under threat,” he said, singling out the United Nations among others. “As a result, many countries are coming to the same conclusions – that they must develop greater strategic independence, in energy, food and critical minerals, and in finance and supply chains.”
When asked by the BBC on Monday whether the United Nations could survive under a Trump presidency, Guterres replied: “I have no doubt about that.”
He said: “I have great confidence in the future of humanity, and I am fighting with everything I can to ensure that the United Nations is part of this renewal that I believe will become inevitable.”