Tony Blair blocked from Gaza peace role over Iraq war legacy
The former prime minister’s controversial Middle East legacy has cost him a seat on Trump’s Gaza peace initiative despite being the only named candidate.
Sir Tony Blair, the only person named to sit on the Gaza “board of peace”, is no longer in the running after Arab and Muslim states objected to his participation.
The Financial Times, quoting people familiar with the matter, said that the former UK prime minister was out of the running because of his reputation in the Middle East, primarily over his support and British involvement in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
During his years in Jerusalem as Middle East envoy of the Quartet, which represents the UN, EU, US and Russia, Blair was seen as more of a friend to Israel than the Palestinians, who criticised his failure to advance their ambitions for statehood. He resigned in 2015.
The board, part of the 20-point roadmap to peace in Gaza proposed by President Trump in September, named only Blair as one of a handful of people meant to sit on the board. Trump had said that he would chair the board.
Last month the UN ratified elements of the plan, including the establishment of the board of peace as a transitional authority and the creation of a temporary International Stabilisation Force (ISF) in Gaza. Neither of those points have been put into action, and Hamas is widely understood to have control of the parts of the strip where Israeli forces have withdrawn, leading to an almost half-and-half divide between Hamas-controlled and Israeli-controlled areas. Border skirmishes occur daily, while Israel has conducted multiple airstrikes on what it calls terror infrastructure and militant personnel.
Last month Trump said “the members of the board, and many more exciting announcements, will be made in the coming weeks”, but no announcement has yet been forthcoming.
The US president has called Blair a “very good man”, while the former British prime minister championed the plan as “bold and intelligent”, indicating that he would accept participation on the board. Blair, as part of his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, had been working on a plan for post-war Gaza for the past year.
“I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody,” Trump said in October.
According to the report, that is not the case. His participation had been criticised by Palestinian leaders, including to The Times: Yasser Arafat’s nephew and proponent of a two-state solution, Nasser al-Qudwa, said Gaza must be led by Palestinians. He also criticised Blair’s nationality, warning that such a leader would remind Gazans of the British Mandate.
Blair has not commented on the potential position nor on his removal. The report did not rule out a future role in the governance structures of Gaza.
The Times
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