Tony Blair takes on larger role as US-led Board of Peace struggles to advance Gaza plan |
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Former UK prime minister Tony Blair is taking on a larger role in the Board of Peace tasked with overseeing the postwar management of Gaza, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel this week.
Blair was passed up for the multinational panel’s top envoy post last year when the US decided to appoint former UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov to serve as the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza, following pushback from several Arab countries, a US official said, citing discomfort with Blair’s active support for the Iraq War beginning in 2003.
But Blair built good relationships with many regional stakeholders and engaged heavily on the issue throughout the Gaza war, even crafting a proposal to establish a postwar transitional body responsible for governing the enclave n place of Hamas. The idea was embraced by the Trump administration and served as a precursor to the Board of Peace that Washington would establish late last year.
The momentum created by the Board of Peace’s September 2025 roll-out helped pave the way for a hostage release and ceasefire deal the next month, as both Israel and Hamas felt unprecedented global pressure to end their war after over two years.
But since that initial truce, efforts to advance subsequent parts of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip — which the Board of Peace was established to promote — have largely stalled.
The Trump plan envisions Hamas handing over its weapons and control of Gaza to a new government of Palestinian technocrats, while internal and multinational security forces phase out the Israel Defense Forces, under the auspices of the Board of Peace.
Talks........