German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday he would be ready to join US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace initiative for the sake of Gaza, but could not accept the plan in its current form.

“In the form in which the peace board is currently set up, we cannot accept its governance structures in Germany for constitutional reasons,” Merz said in a joint news conference with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome.

“However, we are of course prepared to explore other forms — new forms — of cooperation with the United States of America if the aim is to find new formats that bring us closer to peace in different regions of the world.”

Merz said these formats would not need to be limited only to Gaza and the Middle East but could also apply, for example, to Ukraine.

Meloni expressed similar opposition to the Board of Peace in its current form, saying she has asked Trump to amend its terms to resolve constitutional issues that have prevented Italy from joining it.

Under Italy’s constitution, the country can only join international organizations on equal terms with other states — a condition that Meloni says is not met by the board’s current statute, which gives Trump extensive executive powers.

The European Union’s foreign policy arm has also raised........

© The Times of Israel