Vatican says it will not participate in Trump's 'Board of Peace'

REUTERS: The Vatican will not participate in U.S. President Donald Trump's so-called "Board of Peace" initiative, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's top diplomatic official, said today while adding that efforts to handle crisis situations should be managed by the United Nations.

Pope Leo, the first U.S. pope and a critic of some of Trump's policies, was invited to join the board in January.

Under Trump's Gaza plan that led to a fragile ceasefire in October, the board was meant to supervise Gaza's temporary governance. 

Trump thereafter said the board, with him as chair, would be expanded to tackle global conflicts. The board will hold its first meeting in Washington on Thursday to discuss Gaza's reconstruction.

Italy and the European Union have said their representatives plan to attend as observers as they have not joined the board.

The Holy See "will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States," Parolin said.

"One concern," he said, "is that at the international level it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations. This is one of the points on which we have insisted."

Many rights experts say that Trump overseeing a board to supervise a foreign territory's affairs resembled a colonial structure. The board launched last month has also faced criticism for not including a Palestinian.