PM Shehbaz to attend Gaza Board of Peace meeting in Washington

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will attend a meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace in Washington.

According to sources, the first meeting of the Gaza Board of Peace will be held on February 19 under the chair of US President Donald Trump. All member states included in the board are expected to participate.

Sharif will travel to Germany from February 13 to 15, where he will attend the Munich Security Conference, the sources said. After concluding his visit to Germany, he is expected to depart for Washington to attend the Gaza Peace Board meeting.

Sources said that Muslim countries represented on the Gaza Board of Peace are likely to adopt a joint stance at the meeting.

Participants are expected to discuss the current situation in Gaza, measures related to peace and stability, and a future course of action, the sources said.

Pakistan had earlier accepted an invitation from Donald Trump to join the proposed “Board of Peace”, a US-backed international initiative aimed at stabilisation, humanitarian relief and post-war reconstruction in Gaza.

Later, Pakistan’s Foreign Office rejected suggestions that its decision to join the newly formed “Board of Peace” is connected to the Abraham Accords and reiterated that the country will not become a party to those normalization agreements.

Pakistan joined the Board of Peace alongside seven other Muslim-majority countries — including Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Qatar — as part of what government officials described as a collective effort to advance peace in the war-torn Palestinian territory.

The Board of Peace, which was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos and has drawn both support and criticism, is intended to complement United Nations efforts, though some analysts and opposition figures in Pakistan have questioned the government’s decision, arguing it could entangle Islamabad in geopolitical frameworks tied to the United States.