From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, January 2, 2024
Tony Blair says he won’t help resettle Gazans elsewhere, dismisses report as a lie
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Britain’s former prime minister Tony Blair strongly denies an Israeli media report linking him to talks last week about the resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza in other countries.
Channel 12 claimed without citing a source on Sunday that Blair, who left office in 2007 and later a Middle East envoy charged with building up Palestinian institutions, was in Israel last week.
The news channel said he held meetings with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz about a mediation role after the war with Hamas.
He could also act as a go-between with moderate Arab states about the “voluntary resettlement” of Gazans, the Channel 12 report added.
But the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a nonprofit organization he set up in 2016, says the report was “a lie.”
“The story was published without any contact with Tony Blair or his team. No such discussion has taken place,” it says in a statement.
“Nor would Tony Blair have such a discussion. The idea is wrong in principle. Gazans should be able to stay and live in Gaza.”
Far-right coalition parties in Israel are pushing for resettling parts of the Strip and encouraging Palestinians to leave the enclave, and are flatly ruling out any postwar plan that includes a governing role for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza, putting the government at odds with demands from the United States and other international allies.
The Times of Israel Community.