President Donald Trump will announce a multi-billion-dollar reconstruction plan for Gaza and detail plans for a UN-authorised stabilisation force for the Palestinian enclave at the first formal meeting of his Board of Peace next week, two senior US officials said on Thursday.

Delegations from at least 20 countries, including many heads of state, are expected to attend the meeting in Washington, DC, which Trump will chair on February 19, the officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The details on Trump’s plans for the first meeting of his Board of Peace for Gaza have not been previously reported.

Trump signed documents in Davos, Switzerland, on January 23 establishing the Board of Peace.

The board’s creation was endorsed by a United Nations Security Council resolution as part of Trump’s Gaza plan.

While regional Middle East powers, including Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, as well as major emerging nations such as Indonesia, have joined the board, global powers and traditional Western US allies have been more cautious.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday during his visit to Washington that Israel has joined the board.

Trump has stirred concerns that the Board of Peace might try to resolve other conflicts around the world and compete with the United Nations.

The US officials said the meeting next week will focus solely on Gaza.

They said a central part of the meeting will be Trump’s announcement of a multi-billion-dollar fund for Gaza, which will include monetary contributions from participating board members.

One official called the offers “generous” and said that the United States had not made any explicit requests for donations.

“People have come to us offering,” the official said. “The president will make announcements vis-à-vis the money raised.”

STABILIZATION FORCE

Deployment of the International Stabilisation Force is a key part of the next phase of Trump’s Gaza plan, announced in September.

Under the first phase, a fragile ceasefire in the two-year-old war began on October 10, and Hamas has released hostages while Israel has freed detained Palestinians.

Trump will announce that several countries plan to provide several thousand troops to the stabilisation force that is expected to deploy in Gaza in the months ahead, the officials said.

A primary concern for now is disarming Hamas fighters who have been reluctant to give up their weapons.

Under Trump’s Gaza plan, Hamas members who commit to peaceful co-existence and to decommission their weapons will be given amnesty.

Members of Hamas who wish to leave Gaza will be provided safe passage to receiving countries, under the plan.

The Board of Peace meetings will also include detailed reports on the work of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, which was established to take over the day-to-day civil administration of the Gaza Strip from Hamas.

The committee announced its members and held its first meeting in January.

The Bangladesh National Party (BNP) won a decisive two-thirds majority on Friday in general elections, a result expected to bring stability to the nation after months of tumult following the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in a Gen Z-led uprising.

The party, led by Tarique Rahman, will return to power after 20 years. Rahman, the son of BNP founder and former president Ziaur Rahman, is widely expected to be sworn in as prime minister.

Here are some of the key promises made by the BNP in its election manifesto, which has the motto ‘Bangladesh before all’:

Reforms

To implement all points of the July Charter that seek to create new constitutional bodies, introduce a bicameral parliament, along with broader changes in line with political parties’ commitment.

Trade

To undertake initiatives to restart closed industries and diversify the export sector.

To undertake measures so that legally operating foreign businesses can repatriate their stipulated profits to their home countries within 30 days.

Employment

To create nearly 1 million new jobs in the information and communication technology sector.

To ensure fair, price-index-based wages in line with inflation and a review system to be launched every two years.

To develop technical and language skills among the youth and ensure merit-based government recruitment.

Economy

To introduce international payment systems, establish regional e-commerce hubs and boost ‘Make in Bangladesh’.

To launch a ‘Family Card’ for low-income families with monthly provisions to buy essential commodities.

Health

To increase public spending on health to 5% of GDP gradually.

To recruit 100,000 health workers across the country and expand preventive healthcare programmes.

Social

To launch a mid-day meal program for students and a new, skills and values-based education policy for schools.

To build better sports infrastructure and training facilities.

To set up training-based welfare programs for religious leaders of all faiths at places of worship.

DHAKA: Long overshadowed by his parents and heir to one of Bangladesh’s most powerful political dynasties, Tarique Rahman has finally stepped into the spotlight.

At 60, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) leader is preparing to take charge of the South Asian nation of 170 million, driven by what he calls an ambition to “do better”.

A year and a half after the deadly uprising that toppled Sheikh Hasina’s iron-fisted regime, the BNP said they had won a “sweeping victory” in parliamentary elections held on Thursday.

Official results are yet to be declared, but the United States offered congratulations to Rahman on a “historic” win.

His rise marks a remarkable turnaround for a man who only returned to Bangladesh in December after 17 years in exile in Britain, far from Dhaka’s political storms.

Widely known as Tarique Zia, he carries a political name that has shaped every stage of his life.

He was 15 when his father, President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981.

Tarique’s mother, Khaleda Zia — a three-time prime minister and a towering figure in Bangladeshi politics for decades — died aged 80 in December, just days after his return home.

‘My country’

Speaking to AFP two days before the vote, Rahman vowed to build on their legacy.

“They are them, I am me,” he said from his office, beneath gold-framed portraits of his late parents. “I will try to do better than them.”

He described the “mixed feelings” that overwhelmed him when he arrived home in December — the joy of returning, swiftly eclipsed by grief at his mother’s death.

“This is my country, I was born here, I was raised here — so naturally, that was a very happy feeling,” he said.

Instead of celebrating, however, he had to bid farewell to his ailing mother, who had long been in intensive care.

“When you come home after so long, any son wants to hug his mother,” he said. “I didn’t have that chance.”

Within days of landing in Dhaka, he assumed leadership of the BNP and its election campaign.

The still grieving heir took to the stage, microphone in hand, rallying vast crowds.

‘Unnerves many’

His father, Ziaur Rahman, an army commander, gained influence months after a 1975 coup when founding leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman — Sheikh Hasina’s father — was murdered.

It entrenched a rivalry between the two families that would define the country’s politics for decades. Ziaur Rahman himself was killed in 1981.

Rahman grew up in his mother’s political orbit as she went on to become the country’s first female prime minister, alternating power with Hasina in a long and bitter duel.

“In her seats, I used to go and I used to campaign,” Rahman said. “So this is how slowly and gradually I started getting involved in politics.”

But his career has also been shadowed by allegations of corruption and abuse of power.

A 2006 US embassy cable said he “inspires few but unnerves many”.

Other cables labelled him a “symbol of kleptocratic government and violent politics” and accused him of being “phenomenally corrupt”.

Arrested on corruption charges in 2007, Rahman says he was tortured in custody.

He fled to London the following year, where he faced multiple cases in absentia. He denied all charges and dismissed them as politically motivated.

But he also told AFP he offered an apology.

“If there are any mistakes which were unwanted, we are sorry for that,” he told AFP.

After Hasina’s fall, Rahman was acquitted of the most serious charge against him — a life sentence handed down in absentia for a 2004 grenade attack on a Hasina rally — which he had always denied.

Married to a cardiologist and father to a daughter, a lawyer, he led a quiet life in Britain.

That changed with his dramatic return and hero’s welcome in December, accompanied by his fluffy ginger cat, Jebu, images of which have gone viral on Bangladeshi social media.

He admits the task ahead is “immense”, rebuilding a country he says was “destroyed” by the former regime.