As part of the implementation of the 20-point Gaza peace plan that took effect last October, the Trump administration has announced the formation of a new Board of Peace that it says will play an “essential role” in executing the peace plan. But concerns are surfacing over the inclusion of Hamas-sympathizing countries that have been invited to be part of the Board of Peace, including Turkey and Qatar.

In a statement released on Friday, the White House lauded the formation of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), which they noted would be “led by Dr. Ali Sha’ath, a widely respected technocratic leader who will oversee the restoration of core public services, the rebuilding of civil institutions, and the stabilization of daily life in Gaza, while laying the foundation for long-term, self-sustaining governance.”

The statement went on to posit that the Board of Peace would support the NCAG by providing “strategic oversight, mobilizing international resources, and ensuring accountability as Gaza transitions from conflict to peace and development.” But the rollout of the board has raised eyebrows, as the U.S. has invited its foremost global adversaries, Russia and China, to join (both have so far not indicated if they will join), along with Belarus (broadly considered a satellite of the Russian regime of Vladimir Putin). So far, 10 countries have reportedly signed onto the board, with only five (United Arab Emirates, Belarus, Morocco, Hungary, and Canada) publicly confirming acceptance.

Of more immediate concern to observers are the invitations to the Middle Eastern countries of Turkey and Qatar, who have been the foremost state backers of the Islamist terrorist group Hamas that carried out the October 7 massacre of 1,200 Israelis, along with the kidnapping of 250, which precipitated the two-year war with Israel that largely destroyed Gaza’s infrastructure and left thousands dead.

According to experts like Gregg Roman, who serves as executive director of the Middle East Forum, the presence of Turkey and Qatar in the rollout of phase two of the Gaza peace plan is highly problematic.

“Hamas, in terms of its interlocutors in Turkey and Qatar, the two state sponsors of the terror organization, now have de facto representation on the Board of Peace,” he pointed out during “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins” Monday. “[T]he Government of Turkey and its foreign minister and the henchman associated with Sheikh Tamim — Ali al-Thawadi, who reports directly to Sheikh Tamim, the ruler of Qatar, [and] his brother Mohammed bin Hamad. … [T]hey’re effectively going to be acting as Hamas’s shield in this process. They are both assigned one vote.”

Roman further detailed how unsettling it is for Turkey, controlled by autocrat Islamist Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to have a say in Gaza’s future.

“There is a 24-year history of … his anti-Semitism, his anti-Zionism, frankly, his anti-Christian positions that he’s taken and his anti-American attitudes starting all the way back in March of 2003, when he refused to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq, moving all the way to 2009, when he called the president of Israel and Israelis baby killers,” he explained. “[He] host[ed] the Hamas organization in Istanbul and Ankara and … allege[d] that Israel was engaged in genocide against the Palestinian people. This was all while he was massacring Kurds, while he was destroying Christian heritage sites, while he was waging a silent war against Armenia. And he was supporting jihadi groups in Syria, which killed Christians and threatened Israel.”

Roman continued, “With one hand, he speaks to President Trump as a friend, and on the other hand, he’s trying to rebuild a Muslim caliphate to replace the vacuum that the defeat of Iran [left] after the 12-Day War took place. … [H]e sees himself as being the heir to the Ottoman Empire … and Israel is the only impediment to Erdogan’s full conquest of Sunni Islamism throughout the rest of the Middle East.”

But at the end of the day, Roman argued, it is extremely unlikely that Hamas (which still controls a little less than half of Gaza’s territory) will relinquish its power and disarm, which is what the peace plan calls for. “[E]ven though the president of the United States has good intentions, even though he’s trying to rely on erstwhile U.S. frenemies to support this, at the end of the day, it’s going to be Turkey and Qatar stabbing him in the front because they will continue to support Hamas, which is directly anathema to U.S. policy and U.S. law.”

Roman concluded by insisting that only the U.S.’s Arab allies can be trusted with carrying out the peace plan.

“The way forward is to rely on a coalition of America’s willing Arab allies, its willing Muslim allies — Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, some North African countries like Morocco, which are members of the Abraham Accords, and asking them to take responsibility for the management of the Gaza Strip away from Israel,” he emphasized. “… Allow the Europeans to get involved — anything that keeps the Qataris, the Turks, and, frankly, any Islamist actors out to guarantee Hamas’s disarmament. Otherwise, the choice will be five Israeli reserve divisions, which will finish the occupation and invasion of the Gaza Strip to root out Hamas stem and root.”