This is CBS I on the World. I'm John Batchel. Bill Rajos here, my colleague and co-host, the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, and we're very pleased to welcome Edmund Fitten Brown of the FD, to help us on the big picture.

Edmund spent many years as a British diplomat moving around the world,

and he has many things to say of diplomacy and its limits. We're going to start to begin diplomacy

with the Board of Peace. This is a 10-point plan delivered by Mr. Wals, the United Nations ambassador from the United States, said to be the Trump administration and Mr. Trump's 10-point plan, take it or leave it. That's a negotiating position that works in Manhattan. I doubt if it'll work at the UN. But in any event, it includes a Board of Peace, which is described as a technical, apolitical organization made up of moving parts to supervise, to manage the rebuilding and the reawakening of Gaza.

Implicit there is money, which would come in the form of perhaps the World Bank or the IMF.

Implicit also is security, but it's not in any way spelled out. Let's begin with the Board of

Peace. Edmund, when you first read this, did it sound practical-minded? Did it sound

utopian? Did it sound as if it was half-hearted? How did you hear it at first? Good evening to you, Edmund.

Good evening, John. It's great to be back with you. I think there's a little bit of all of those

reactions in there, but then I guess we should bear in mind that we're in uncharted territory,

aren't we? We've all been banging our heads against

the Middle East peace process for decades. And suddenly you have this impetus coming from Washington

that says we have to solve this. We can't allow what happened on the 7th October 2023 ever to ever to happen again, and therefore we're going to

have to force the issue. And as you force the issue, of course, you introduce elements which

are going to be difficult. Some of them may even prove to be impractical.

But what the United States did with the Trump plan, and in particular with the Board of Peace proposal, it drew on consultations that have been going on for some time amongst people concerned to solve the Middle East peace conundrum. And primarily, amongst those, I would say probably the most active

over the longest period has been Tony Blair, the former British Prime Minister.

And clearly his ideas, which had been worked up over a prolonged period, had caught

President Trump's attention. Obviously, the US had its own ideas, which were being generated

by Steve Wickoff, by Jared Kushner, by others.

There were also discussions going on between the French and the Saudis and, you know,

a whole range of other concerned parties. And so this all then took shape in the 20-point plan. And the Board of Peace specifically is the part of the

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