The US has announced the launch of the second phase of its 20-point peace plan for Gaza, which envisions moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has accepted an offer from President Donald Trump to join a so-called Board of Peace that's intended to oversee a US peace plan for the Gaza Strip, according to a senior Canadian official.
Carney has just concluded a high-profile visit to China, where he met with President Xi Jinping and struck a deal to lower trade barriers between their two nations.
In a statement on Friday afternoon, the White House said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, World Bank Group President Ajay Banga and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, among others, would sit on an initial executive panel before the formation of an overall board.
Carney would likely be a member of the broader Board of Peace, expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks.
The White House said each member of the executive board announced earlier on Friday "will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza's stabilization and long-term success," including "governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization."
The executive board announcement came just days after the US announced the "launch" of the second phase of Trump's 20-point peace plan for the war-ravaged territory.
That phase envisions "moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction," Witkoff wrote in a post on X Wednesday that threatened Hamas, the militant group that still controls almost half of Gaza, with "serious consequences" if it doesn't "comply fully" with its obligations to disarm.
The truce between Israel and Hamas has been punctuated by fighting and airstrikes numerous times since it was reached in mid-October.
With Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US and European Union, still refusing to disarm as part of the US-led process, the prospects for durable peace remain uncertain. The Iran-backed group has yet to return the remains of the last hostage taken during the October 2023 attacks that triggered the Israel-Hamas war, a critical part of the first phase of the Trump plan.
Trump announced the formation of the board on social media but didn't say who was on it. "I can say with certainty that it is the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any time, any place," he said.
Since taking office last March, Carney has had an uneasy relationship with the American president, who has upended US relations with Canada, one of its oldest and most reliable allies.
The prime minister, who frequently talks about the Canada-US relationship as having suffered a historic "rupture," called for a new approach to China, "adapted to new global realities," in his meeting with Xi.