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Tony Blair has been dropped from consideration for Donald Trump’s “board of peace” in Gaza, following objections from several Arab and Muslim states, said people familiar with the matter.
The former UK prime minister was the only person identified for the board when the US president unveiled his 20-point plan to end the war between Israel and Hamas in late September, with Trump saying he was a “very good man”.
At the time, Blair described Trump’s plan as “bold and intelligent” and indicated he would be happy to serve on the board, which is to be chaired by the US president.
But some Arab and Muslim states pushed back against Blair’s position, in part because of the damage to his reputation in the Middle East caused by his staunch support for the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq. There were also concerns that Palestinians would be marginalised from the governance structure.
Trump acknowledged there could be opposition to Blair’s appointment in October, saying: “I’ve always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody.”
Blair, who served as a Middle East envoy after leaving Downing Street in 2007, had been working on Gaza plans for more than a year in an individual capacity, using his Tony Blair Institute to formulate his ideas.
He co-ordinated with Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law and the US’s Middle East envoy during the president’s first term.
Blair’s office declined to comment, but an ally said the former prime minister would not be sitting on the “board of peace”. “That will be made up of serving world leaders and there will be a smaller executive board under that,” the ally said.
Blair is expected to sit on the executive committee alongside Kushner and Trump adviser Steve Witkoff, along with senior officials from Arab and western countries, said the ally of Blair.
Another person briefed on the discussions also said Blair might still have a position in the future governance structures for Gaza.
“He could still have a role in a different capacity and that seems likely,” the person said. “The Americans like him and the Israelis like him.”
Trump’s plan for ending the conflict in Gaza has largely stalled since it was announced more than two months ago along with a fragile ceasefire, with the strip divided between Hamas-controlled and Israeli-controlled areas.
When the president unveiled the plan he said other members of the “board of peace” would include heads of state and be named in the “next few days”. But no appointments have been made.
Still, Trump has said the implementation of his plan is going well, and that a move to the second phase of the Gaza plan would happen “pretty soon”, hinting that an announcement about the board could be imminent.
As part of the postwar governing structure for Gaza, an executive committee is to be created that will be headed by former UN envoy and Bulgarian defence minister Nickolay Mladenov, according to two people familiar with the preparations.
The executive committee, which was not originally mentioned in the Gaza plans, is expected to co-ordinate between the board of peace and a Palestinian technocratic committee tasked with the day-to-day running of the strip.
Mladenov’s role appears similar to the functions first mooted for Blair, which involved acting as a “supreme executive”, essentially running a body that was supposed to oversee a postwar transition in Gaza.
The veteran Bulgarian diplomat, who heads the Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, served as the UN special envoy for the Middle East peace process between 2015 and 2020, often acting as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.
Much of the postwar plan for Gaza remains undefined. There is little clarity over the composition of the Palestinian technocratic committee or the international stabilisation force that is to be responsible for security.
No government has publicly committed to the force, and there is no clarity over its mandate, size and command structure, say diplomats.
It is also unclear how Hamas will be disarmed. The militant group, whose October 7 2023 attack triggered the war, has so far resisted any moves to disarm, as demanded by Trump’s ceasefire deal.
Additional reporting: George Parker in London
