When US President Donald Trump touches down in the Middle East next week, he will take on a new role: chairman of the board.
Trump has put himself at the head of a committee that is expected to oversee Gaza. Experts say that putting aside the fact that Trump has made himself the final arbitrator of a territory whose people, the Palestinians, did not elect him, it could still bode well for the durability of the ceasefire now in effect.
“This has Trump’s imprimatur (guarantee),” David Schenker, a former senior US official now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told Middle East Eye. “He owns it and doesn’t want it to fail.”
The image of a vast board of stakeholders, all with their own objectives, somewhat captures the spirit of the ceasefire Trump has ushered in.
Read more: Has Trump’s peace plan introduced new mediators to Israel-Palestine?
