White House announces ‘Board of Peace’, names Bulgaria’s Mladenov as High Representative for Gaza

The White House has announced the names of the first members of the “Board of Peace”, with Bulgaria’s Nikolai Mladenov as High Representative for Gaza.

Mladenov is on the seven-member “executive board”.

As High Representative for Gaza “he will act as the on-the-ground link” between the “Board of Peace” and the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), according to the White House statement.

“He will support the Board’s oversight of all aspects of Gaza’s governance, reconstruction, and development, while ensuring coordination across civilian and security pillars,” it said.

The “executive board” will help support effective governance and “the delivery of best-in-class services that advance peace, stability, and prosperity for the people of Gaza,” the White House said.

The NCAG will 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”.

Mladenov has held several positions in the inter-governmental and non-governmental sectors, including at the World Bank, the National Democratic Institute and the International Republic Institute.

Formerly a member of the European Parliament, he was Bulgaria’s defence minister from July 2009, going on to serve as the country’s foreign minister from January 2010 to March 2013.

Mladenov was appointed the United Nations Special Representative for Iraq in August 2013. From February 2015 until December 31 2020, he was UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process.

Interviewed in January 2025 by public broadcaster Bulgarian National Television’s (BNT) The World and Us (Светът и ние) programme, Mladenov said that true peace could only exist when Hamas does not control territories in Gaza and disarms if it wants to be part of the common Palestinian political project for the future of the Palestinian people.

The goal should be to pacify the situation in Gaza, to create an architecture that will ensure that the Palestinians living in Gaza will live in peace, tranquility, will have the opportunity for economic development and will not be subjected to the terror that Hamas has been exerting on them for more than a decade, Mladenov told BNT at the time.

(Photo: Rick Bajornas/ UN Photo)