{"id":305714,"date":"2025-12-08T21:07:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:07:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305714\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T21:07:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T21:07:07","slug":"tony-blair-reportedly-dropped-from-trumps-gaza-board-of-peace-shortlist-tony-blair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/305714\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair reportedly dropped from Trump\u2019s Gaza \u2018board of peace\u2019 shortlist | Tony Blair"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tony Blair will not occupy a key position on Donald Trump\u2019s Gaza \u201cpeace council\u201d after Arab and Muslim nations were reported to have objected to the involvement of the former UK prime minister.<\/p>\n

According to the Financial Times<\/a> (FT), Blair has been quietly dropped from consideration for Trump\u2019s \u201cboard of peace\u201d, which Trump has said he would chair himself.<\/p>\n

It had previously been reported widely that Blair had been canvassing behind the scenes for a prominent role in Gaza\u2019s interim administration<\/a>, amid leaks of a plan drawn up in part by his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI) with Trump\u2019s son-in-law and informal envoy Jared Kushner.<\/p>\n

While Blair\u2019s backers had pointed to his role in ending decades of violence in Northern Ireland, critics had pointed his lacklustre record of achievements while serving as the representative of the socalled Quartet \u2013 the UN, EU, US and Russia \u2013 to help mediate Middle East peace.<\/p>\n

In the wider Arab world Blair was also viewed with scepticism and hostility <\/a>over his role in the disastrous US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.<\/p>\n

Blair had been the only person publicly identified for a potential role on the board when the US president unveiled his 20-point plan to end the war between Israel<\/a> and Hamas in late September, with Trump saying Blair was a \u201cvery good man\u201d.<\/p>\n

The plan, in which the TBI had input, had been criticised for its lack of a clear timeline to Palestinian statehood, and suggesting Gaza be run under a separate legal framework to the West Bank leading to fears that Palestine\u2019s two non-contiguous elements risked no longer be envisaged as a single polity.<\/p>\n

Acknowledging that Blair remained a controversial figure, Trump conceded in October: \u201cI\u2019ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he\u2019s an acceptable choice to everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reported withdrawal of Blair comes despite claims that he had an unpublicised meeting with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, in late November to discuss plans according to a report in the Times of Israel.<\/p>\n

A source who spoke to the FT suggested Blair could still play a less central role. \u201cHe could still have a role in a different capacity and that seems likely,\u201d the person said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans like him and the Israelis like him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blair\u2019s office declined to comment, but an ally said the former prime minister would not be sitting on the \u201cboard of peace\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat will be made up of serving world leaders and there will be a smaller executive board under that,\u201d the source told the FT.<\/p>\n

If confirmed, Blair\u2019s non-involvement would suggest the latest chaotic episode in Trump\u2019s plans for Gaza, which have seen continued deadly Israeli strikes on the coastal strip, as the White House has struggled to recruit nations for its proposed peace-keeping force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tony Blair will not occupy a key position on Donald Trump\u2019s Gaza \u201cpeace council\u201d after Arab and Muslim…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":305715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-305714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}