With appointment to Gaza peace committee, Tony Blair returns to Middle East limelight

LONDON (AFP) — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose legacy was heavily tarnished by the 2003 war in Iraq, has long been a contentious figure in the Middle East.

The 72-year-old political veteran was on Friday named by US President Donald Trump as a member of the executive committee of a fledgling “Board of Peace” to help oversee Gaza.

He said on Saturday that he was “honored” to have been tapped by Trump to join the panel, adding that he looked forward to working with “other colleagues in line with the president’s vision to promote peace and prosperity.”

He also welcomed as “a massive step forward” a Palestinian committee headed by former Palestinian Authority deputy minister Ali Shaath, which began work in Cairo on Friday to govern post-war Gaza.

“It gives hope to people in Gaza that they can have a future different from the past and to the Israelis that they may have a neighbor which does not threaten its security,” Blair said in a statement.

Blair has been credited in some media reports with helping craft the US leader’s 20-point Gaza plan alongside Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner.

Blair has plenty of experience in the region, having spent eight years as the envoy for the Middle East Quartet of the European Union, United Nations, United States and Russia.

But social media users were quick to point to his role in backing false evidence of Iraqi chemical weapons to justify the 2003 invasion.

Trump has already declared himself the chair of the board and on Friday announced its full membership will include Blair, as well as Kushner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Steve Witkoff, Trump’s business partner turned globe-trotting negotiator.

They were all “leaders with experience across diplomacy, development, infrastructure, and economic strategy,” the White House said in a statement.

‘Horrible idea’

But critics have argued that Blair achieved little as Middle East envoy and that he is ill-suited to play peacemaker, as he is reviled by many Arabs and discredited in Britain for joining the US-led invasion of Iraq.

Blair has maintained an informal regional role through his Institute for Global Change and various consultancy roles.

When the idea of Blair taking a senior role in the running of Gaza was first mooted, Israel appeared to welcome the move. And he is said to have a good rapport with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He has always had a corner of his heart devoted to the unfinished project of calming down this conflict,” former Prime Minister Ehud Barak told the Washington Post in September.

The Palestinians seemed less enthusiastic when the idea was first floated.

“That is the most horrible idea,” Mustafa Barghouti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, told CNN at the time.

Blair has remained unapologetic about joining the 2003 invasion, which triggered accusations he was “a poodle” of then US President George W. Bush.

But he has expressed regret about intelligence failures and a lack of post-war planning.

Iraq War protests

A youthful Blair first became a lawmaker for the center-left Labour in 1983. Within 11 years, he was spearheading reform as the party’s leader.

He became prime minister in 1997 — the first of three general election wins, an unprecedented feat for Labour — and, at 43, Britain’s youngest leader since 1812.

During his 10-year tenure, Blair, a practicing Christian, oversaw a period of prosperity, enacted key constitutional changes and expanded gay rights.

He also secured a historic peace deal in Northern Ireland.

But his political fortunes shifted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

One million people protested in London against invading Iraq, and his domestic reputation eroded further after the evidence for the war proved flawed.

He was ousted from office in 2007 after an internal power battle.