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Trump names Tony Blair, Jared Kushner to Gaza ‘Board of Peace’
President Donald Trump has named former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to his so-called “Board of Peace”, which is expected to oversee the United States president’s 20-point plan to end Israel’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.
The White House said on Friday that Blair would be among the board’s founding executive members, alongside Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the US special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff.
The other members are Marc Rowan, the CEO of Apollo Global Management; World Bank Group President Ajay Banga; and Robert Gabriel, a US deputy national security adviser.
The board members “will oversee a defined portfolio critical to Gaza’s stabilization and long-term success”, the White House said, including “governance capacity-building, regional relations, reconstruction, investment attraction, large-scale funding, and capital mobilization “.
Bulgarian diplomat and former senior United Nations official Nickolav Mladenoy will serve as the High Representative for Gaza, according to the statement.
The announcement also named members of a Gaza Executive Board, aimed at supporting governance and services in Gaza. Blair, Kushner and Witkoff were also named to the board, along with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, Qatari diplomat Ali Al Thawadi and others.
In addition, the White House said that US Major-General Jasper Jeffers has been appointed as Commander of the International Stabilisation Force for Gaza.
Jeffers, who is the current commander of US special forces, would lead the force in a range of areas, including security operations, delivering humanitarian aid and supporting “comprehensive demilitarization”, the White House said.
While the US has long supported Israel’s demand that Hamas surrender all of its weapons, the Palestinian group has said it wants guarantees before doing so.
The Gaza Executive Board will support the Office of the High Representative and a National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), headed up by Ali Shaath, which is expected to handle day-to-day governance in Gaza in lieu of Hamas.
Shaath is a former Deputy Minister of Transportation for the Palestinian Authority, who is from Khan Younis in Gaza but based in the occupied West Bank.
Hamas had previously said it was ready to abandon its governing duties in the enclave as outlined under the Trump plan.
There was no immediate response from Hamas and other Palestinian political factions to the makeup of the Board of Peace’s executive board.
The White House announcement on Friday comes just days after Witkoff announced the launch of the second phase of the US-brokered plan to end Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 71,000 Palestinians since October 2023.
The US administration has said Trump’s plan is “moving from ceasefire to demilitarization, technocratic governance, and reconstruction”.
But Palestinians have questioned what that will mean in practice, as Israel continues to carry out deadly attacks across the coastal enclave and restrict deliveries of humanitarian aid, in violation of the US-brokered ceasefire deal that came into effect in October.
A 10-year-old girl, a 16-year-old boy and an elderly woman were killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza on Friday, as members of a planned Palestinian technocratic committee sat down for the first time in Cairo to prepare for the rollout of phase two of Trump’s plan.
The participation of Blair, who served as British prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has also been a major point of contention, after his name was floated as a possible candidate for the Board of Peace months ago.
The former United Kingdom Labour Party leader strongly supported the US-led so-called “war on terror” in the early 2000s, and joined then-US President George W Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and another newly-named executive board member, is also a staunch supporter of Israel who previously suggested that Palestinians are incapable of self-governance.
Kushner’s family also has strong ties to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes committed in Gaza.
In 2024, Kushner underscored that Gaza has “very valuable” waterfront property, saying that Israel should “move the people out and then clean it up”.
Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna, reporting from Washington, DC, noted that some of the people nominated by Trump will be “members of both the Board of Peace and of the executive board for Gaza”.
“It would appear from this structure outline that the Board of Peace has the overarching responsibility, but dealing with the nuts and bolts on the ground in transition will be the Gaza Executive Board,” Hanna said.
Hanna also noted that Mladenov’s role as the High Representative for Gaza shows that there will be a UN component, considering the Bulgarian diplomat was previously the UN’s top envoy to the region from 2015-2020.
“There is a UN component in this, which is very important, given the differences between the US and the UN in recent years,” Hanna said.
“To have the UN viably involved in the reconstruction of Gaza is utterly essential for these boards, the Board of Peace and the administration board, to have a semblance of credibility,” he added.
Criticism of the board also emerged swiftly.
Ashish Prashar, who worked as an aide to Blair between 2010 and 2012, called for rejecting international trusteeship over Gaza, stating in a post on social media that “the future of Palestine should only be decided by Palestinians”.
“It appears the only qualification for joining the Gaza ‘peace board’ is to have a strong track record of endorsing (and arming) Israel’s project of genocide, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and criminalising those who oppose it,” Prashar told Al Jazeera in a statement.
“Trump’s Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ was just a pilot project. All states who signed off on it are the ones who paved the way for Trump’s next ‘Boards of Peace’ in Venezuela, Ukraine and any other place the extractionist American regime wants to take next,” he said.
[Aljazeera]
The landslide early warnings issued to the Districts of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya by the Landslide Early Warning Center of the National Building Research Organisation have been extended till 0600 hrs on 15th February 2026.
Accordingly,
The Level II [AMBER] warnings issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Walapane and Nildandahinna in the Nuwar Eliya district and the
Level I [YELLOW] warning issued to the Divisional Secretaries Divisions and surrounding areas of Pathadumbara in the Kandy district have been extended.
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Advisory for Severe Lightning issued to the Western, Sabaragamuwa and Southern provinces and Badulla and Nuwara-Eliya districts
Advisory for Severe Lightning Issued by the Natural Hazards Early Warning Centre at 11.30 a.m. 14 February 2026 valid for the period until 11.30 p.m. 14 February 2026
Thundershowers accompanied with severe lightning are likely to occur at some places in the Western, Sabaragamuwa and Southern provinces and in Badulla and Nuwara-Eliya districts after 1.00 p.m. There may be temporary localized strong winds during thundershowers.
The General public is kindly requested to take adequate precautions to minimize damages caused by lightning activity.
ACTION REQUIRED:
The Department of Meteorology advises that people should:
Seek shelter, preferably indoors and never under trees.
Avoid open areas such as paddy fields, tea plantations and open water bodies during thunderstorms.
Avoid using wired telephones and connected electric appliances during thunderstorms.
Avoid using open vehicles, such as bicycles, tractors and boats etc.
Beware of fallen trees and power lines.
For emergency assistance contact the local disaster management authorities.
Ireland muscled the highest score of the 2026 T20 World Cup en route to a dominating win over Oman in Group C to keep their Super Eights hopes alive, at least mathematically.
Lorcan Tucker, standing in for the injured Paul Stirling, muscled 94 not out as Ireland walloped 235 for 5. They hammered eight sixes in the last three overs alone – more than Oman had in the tournament until then – and the last five overs produced 93 runs.
In response, Oman were bowled out for 139 with two overs left unused, the innings characterised by a rush of wickets following an early turbocharge from 44-year-old Aamir Kaleem, who muscled 50 off 29 balls.
Playing his first game of the competition, left-arm spinner Shakeel Ahmed struck thrice in the powerplay to leave Ireland in trouble at 45 for 3 after five overs. Each of the three wickets had a different skill at play: Tim Tector was dismissed with an arm-ball, Ross Adair was beaten in flight as he skied one to mid-off, and Harry Tector was bowled, done in by dip and turn.
There was more trouble for Ireland as Kaleem, also a left-arm spinner, struck to remove Curtis Campher in the eighth over. Two balls later, he should have had Tucker on 18, but for a missed stumping by Vinayak Shukla. Deceived in flight, Tucker seemed to have been stumped down leg, but third umpire Ahsan Raza deemed Shukla to have broken the bails with the hand in which he didn’t have the ball. Replays, though, seemed to indicate both gloves were in contact with each other. Had it been given, Ireland would have been 65 for 5.
For the first 14 overs, Oman’s mantra was pace off. And that meant Tucker had to adjust to a slow surface. Out went the agricultural heaves, out came the scoops and paddles. Tucker and Gareth Delany raised their half-century stand off just 33 deliveries, with Tucker getting to his half-century first with a ferocious sweep behind square off Kaleem. This was only the second half-century by an Irish captain, after Andy Balbirnie, in a men’s T20 World Cup.
With their spin options exhausted by 14 overs, Oman turned to their seam options in a bid to restrict Ireland. This is when Delany chose to leave his imprint on the game, muscling Jiten Ramanandi for two sixes off his first two deliveries in an 18-run over. Then he went after Faisal Shah, flat-batting a six off a slower-length ball to raise a 28-ball half-century. That was to be the start of the carnage that saw Ireland muscle 93 off the last five overs.
Tucker began the 18th over on 60 and ended it on 86 as he took apart Mohammad Nadeem with three sixes and two fours. Suddenly, a first century by an Irish batter at a men’s T20 World Cup loomed, but George Dockrell’s cameo – 35 not out off nine – provided the perfect finish. Ireland had smashed an incredible 156 off their last ten overs.
Jatinder Singh fell for his third low score, while Ashish Odedara, playing his first game, was run out taking a casual stroll. After two ordinary outings, Kaleem showed what he is capable of in a sensational powerplay take-down, reminiscent of his half-century against India at last year’s Asia Cup. When he got to a half-century, off just 28 deliveries, he became the oldest half-centurion in men’s T20 World Cup history. At 97 for 2 in the 11th over, Oman were well on track.
Then from 107 for 3, they slumped to 108 for 5 before Josh Little, the left-arm seamer, picked up the wickets of Ramanandi and Nadeem Khan to inflict further damage. By then, it looked increasingly likely Oman wouldn’t even bat their overs. And they didn’t, the margin of defeat of 96 runs, much bigger than it seemed when Kaleem set them up in the first half.
Brief scores:
Ireland 235 for 5 in 20 overs (Ross Adair 14, Harry Tector 14, Lorcan Tucker 94*, Curtis Campher 12, Gareth Delany 56, George Dockrell 35*; Shakeel 3-33) beat Oman 139 in 18 overs (Aamir Kaleem 50, Hammad Mirza 46, Sufiyan Mehmood 10; Mathew Humphreys 2-27, Barry McCarthy 2-32, Josh Little 3-16, George Dockrell 1-06) by 96 runs
[Cricinfo]
Landslide Early Warnings issued to the districts of Kandy and Nuwara Eliya extended
Advisory for Severe Lightning issued to the Western, Sabaragamuwa and Southern provinces and Badulla and Nuwara-Eliya districts
Tucker 94* headlines Ireland’s thrashing of Oman
High risk of rain in marquee India vs Pakistan T20 World Cup game in Colombo
New Zealand and South Africa look ahead to Super Eights in low-pressure contest
Teacher recruitment examinations will be conducted in accordance with the relevant court decisions – PM
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