United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov attends a press conference at the (UNSCO) offices in Gaza City, Sept. 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Adel Hana, File)
A former U.N. Mideast envoy has been chosen to direct U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to oversee the ceasefire in Gaza, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced.
The appointment of Bulgarian diplomat Nickolay Mladenov marks an important step forward for Trump’s Mideast peace plan, which has moved slowly since delivering a ceasefire in October 2025, ending more than two years of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Netanyahu made the announcement after meeting Mladenov in Jerusalem, identifying him as the “designated” director-general for the board, which is meant to oversee the implementation of the second and far more complicated phase of the cease-fire.
A senior U.S. official confirmed Mladenov is the Trump administration’s choice to be the board’s day-to-day administrator on the ground.
Trump has said he will head the board. Other appointments are expected next week, according to Israeli and American officials.
Under Trump’s plan, the board is supposed to supervise a new technocratic Palestinian government, the disarmament of Hamas, the deployment of an international security force, additional pullbacks of Israeli troops and reconstruction.
Mladenov is a former Bulgarian defense and foreign minister who served as the U.N. envoy to Iraq before being appointed as the U.N. Mideast peace envoy from 2015-2020.
During that time, he had good working relations with Israel and frequently worked to ease tensions between Israel and Hamas.
Meanwhile, Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip on Jan. 8 killed at least eight people, according to Palestinian hospital officials and family members
