Who could have guessed that Tony B. Liar would be slightly suspect...
‘Fatal flaws’: analysts cast doubt on Tony Blair’s plan for future of Gaza
Former PM seems a perfect fit for Trump’s new era but his track record in the Middle East is not reassuring
The emergence of Tony Blair as a potential Gaza interim consul and member of Donald Trump’s “board of peace” marks his latest reinvention as a would-be power broker in the Middle East.
As a key architect of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, a promoter of a simplistic interpretation of Islamist extremism as the world’s main security challenge and a figure who has been accused of intertwining his own business interests with his political advocacy, he is in some ways a perfect fit for the new Trump era.
What is less clear is what the former UK prime minister can meaningfully bring to one of the world’s most intractable problems, outside overarching self-belief.
Blair’s role as an architect of the Good Friday agreement ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland is much mentioned, but his track record in the Middle East is far more controversial.
His years in Jerusalem working for the Quartet on the Middle East – representing the UN, EU, US and Russia – were viewed at best as a moderate success by diplomats while Palestinians saw him as an impediment to their efforts to advance statehood.
He was appointed with the backing of the then US president, George Bush, and the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, but the EU and Russia were less enthusiastic. Blair’s role from the beginning was somewhat toothless, focused largely on economic development, and Palestinian officials complained he was more sympathetic to
Israel.
Even in the year before he became Quartet envoy, Blair’s actions were seen by some as contributing to what would become two decades of crisis in
Gaza that followed elections in 2006.
Former PM seems a perfect fit for Trump’s new era but his track record in the Middle East is not reassuring
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