The Holy See “will not participate in the Board of Peace because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other States.”

The Vatican’s cardinal secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, made the statement to journalists Tuesday, on the sidelines of a bilateral meeting with the Italian government at the Holy See’s embassy to Italy.

Parolin was at the embassy with Italian president Sergio Mattarella to mark the anniversary of the 1929 Lateran Pacts that formally established relations between the Holy See and what was then the Kingdom of Italy.

The “Board of Peace” was floated by U.S. President Donald Trump in September of last year as part of his peace plan for Gaza, the name of “a new international transitional body” Trump said he would chair and lead himself.

The first meeting of the body is scheduled for Thursday in the U.S. capital.

In remarks to Reuters in January, Trump said the first order of business for the body would be to devise a reconstruction plan for Gaza, but the body will address other challenges as they come.

“It’s going to, in my opinion, start with Gaza and then do conflicts as they arise,” Trump told the news agency.

Trump has also reportedly sought a $1 billion donation from prospective board member-nations, and several countries including Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Egypt have accepted.

Several U.S. allies in Europe, however, have already declined invitations, some of them expressing concern the body will weaken the United Nations.

Pope Leo reportedly received an invitation last month.

“[T]here are points that leave us somewhat perplexed,” Parolin said, “some critical points that would need to find explanations.”

One specific concern cited by the Vatican secretary of state “is that at the international level, it should above all be the UN that manages these crisis situations.”

“This is one of the points on which we have insisted,” Parolin said.

Parolin also spoke with reporters about the ongoing war in Ukraine, saying “there is considerable pessimism” in the Vatican regarding the prospects for a resolution to the conflict.

Parolin’s Ukraine remarks came just a few days shy of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.

“On both sides it does not seem to us that there are real advances regarding peace, and it is tragic that after four years, we still find ourselves at this point,” Parolin said.

“One hopes that these dialogues may produce some progress,” Parolin also said, “but it seems to me that there is not much hope and not many expectations.”