A new important role for former British prime minister? While the end of the war is in all the heads of Gaza, the next one is already taking shape, with a man in the center of the discussions: Tony Blair. His name was clearly mentioned in his plan in 20 stages to “finish the conflict in Gaza”, this Monday, September 29.
In his presentation, Donald Trump insists on his desire to create a “temporary transition government by a technocratic and apolitical Palestinian committee” in charge of daily affairs.
It will be supervised by “a new international transition body”, which he calls the “Peace Council” that will be directed by several members, including Tony Blair and himself. The former British leader is the only other leader who is, for the moment, appointed in this plan.
Through his institute, Tony Blair praised a “daring and intelligent plan that, if accepted, can end the war and offer the population of Gazán the possibility of a better future.”
An international authority
His name does not come out of nothing. On August 27, Tony Blair participated in a meeting at the White House with Donald Trump and Steve Witkoff in the postwar period in Gaza, the country reported. A month earlier, he already met Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian authority.
Highly criticized for his support for the United States in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the former Labor leader, by force of local experiences and relationships built at work, replaced on the chess board on the subject after Gaza.
“He has always maintained a place in his heart for this unfinished project to appease this conflict,” said Ehud Barak, a former Israeli prime minister, about him in the words reported by the Washington Post.
According to the documents consulted by Al Jazeera and the Washington Post, Tony Blair is expected to the front of a new entity called Gaza International Transition Authority (Gita), which would administer Gaza during a transition period of up to several years.
This authority is mentioned in a 21 -page confidential document that the Israeli newspaper Haaretz revealed in its entirety and that The Guardian could also consult. This plan would ignore the current Palestinian leaders, leaving an international authority instead. Several personalities, such as Egyptian billionaire Naguib Sawiris, Marc Rowan or Aryeh Lightstone are mentioned as potential members.
Weight support and “immense trust”
In his bag, the former prime minister has weight support, including the son of the US president, Jared Kushner. All with a reputation as a man who loves challenges. A special envoy of the quartet for the Middle East was experienced from 2007 to 2015, before maintaining their activities in the region through its institution, in thorny archives, which wish to get up from Ethan Hunt of Diplomacy, have officiated in Kosovo as Northern Ireland in the past.
“There is a surprising feature in his personality, this immense confidence in his ability to solve the most difficult problems in the world,” reports his biographer John Ventoul, in Washington Post.
“The objective is to obtain an agreement on the later day ‘to end the war,” attests to a zero the former 10 Downing Street resident in the Financial Times, referring to his desire to “return to a solution to two states.”
A highly disputed promotion
Almost 80 years after the end of the British mandate in Palestine, Tony Blair’s hypothesis refers, for some, for fear of returning and awakens significant questions. Especially because despite his role as a special envoy for the Middle East for eight years, some will deplore his lack of action.
“Despite its terrible failures in Iraq and with the Palestinian authority, the former British prime minister continues to pierce about the evils and remedies of the Middle East,” he said in 2014, the influential political analyst Marwan Bishara, for the New York Times.
“Seven years after having been appointed special sent from the quartet, the occupied territories of Palestine are still besieged. And eleven years after having the co-pacarza the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the country is collapsing,” he added.
“It is absolutely unacceptable that Tony Blair takes the initiative of a transition authority in Gaza, we do not need a leader who comes from an ex -colonial power,” Mustafa Barghouti, general secretary of the National Palestinian initiative, reacted with the Washington Post. “It’s an absolutely horrible idea,” he added.
Accused of war crimes in Iraq
The return to the avant -garde of Tony Blair is not to the taste of Francesca Albanese, Unator of the United Nations for the situation of human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.
“Tony Blair? Without a doubt!”, He wrote in X. “Do not touch Palestine. Maybe we could find ourselves in The Hague?” He added, in reference to the International Criminal Court. His detractors believe that he should be tried for war crimes due to Iraq’s invasion.
“There are already fears against Tony Blair due to his Palestinian experience when he was a quartet representative. But the most serious thing is that this plan separates the Gaza Gaza band from the legal level and does not explain how these two territories will continue to be part of the same set,” Wormies Xavier Abu Eid, former advisor.
A plan that awaits a validation of Hamas
In spite of everything, several countries of the Arab world have praised the plan proposed by Donald Trump, who was accepted by Benjamin Netanhyuhu. The Palestinian authority welcomed its “sincere and determined efforts” and “welcomes the sincere and determined efforts of the president to end the war in Gaza,” he said in the press release.
Qatar said Hamas is studying the “responsible” plan, while the Emirate said he was “satisfied” about security guarantees at the end of a call Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu Benjamin on Monday.
Donald Trump said Tuesday that Hamas had “three or four days” to respond to his plan for Gaza, which provides in particular an immediate stop of hostilities. “We are only waiting for Hamas. And Hamas will accept or accept. And if he does not accept, he will end very sadly,” said US president in the short exchange with the White House press.
Source: BFM TV
