President Donald Trump's plan to make the Board of Peace the premier international organization backfired when it inadvertently increased support for the United Nations.
According to The Associated Press, Trump had intended for his organization to eclipse the U.N Security Council.
"In my opinion, the basic responsibility for international peace and security lies with U.N., lies with the Security Council," Secretary General Antonio Guterres explained on Thursday. "Only the Security Council can adopt decisions binding on all, and no other body or other coalition can legally be required to have all member states to comply with decisions on peace and security."
U.N. program director Richard Gowan called the Board of Peace's rollout a "liability."
"Countries that wanted to sign on to help Gaza saw the board turning into a Trump fan club. That was not appealing," he noted. "If Trump had kept the focus of the board solely on Gaza, more states, including some more Europeans, would have signed up."
China, France, Russia, and the United Kingdom — four other veto-wielding members of the Security Council — have not said they will join Trump's Board.
Trump's push for the dominance of his new peace board has prompted some countries to call for strengthening the U.N.
"No single country should dictate terms based on its power, and a winner-takes-all approach is unacceptable," China's U.N. ambassador, Fu Cong, said recently.
"It's hardly surprising that very few governments want to join Trump's wannabe-U.N., which so far looks more like a pay-to-play club of human rights abusers and war crimes suspects than a serious international organization," U.N. director for Human Rights Watch Louis Charbonneau observed. "Instead of handing Trump $1 billion checks to join his Board of Peace, governments should work on strengthening the U.N."