Blair loses place in Trump's Gaza plan as PA insists any new body must be tied to it

The UK's former Prime Minister Tony Blair has been dropped from US President Donald Trump's proposed "Board of Peace" for Gaza, after objections from Muslim and Arab countries, chiefly regarding his previous role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and concerns that Palestinians would be sidelined from any future governance structure, the Financial Times reported on Monday.

It came after the Palestinian Authority made clear to Blair and US officials that any body established in Gaza without an organic link to the PA "will not be able to survive", according to a Palestinian official who spoke to The New Arab's Arabic-language sister site Al-Araby Al-Jadeed.

"How can there be a body in the Gaza Strip that has nothing to do with the Palestinian Authority, as Israel demands?" the official said on condition of anonymity.

According to the FT, Blair was removed from consideration for the "Board of Peace" after regional governments expressed outrage over his record and warned that placing him in a leading role risked marginalising Palestinians.

People familiar with the discussions said the board would be composed of serving world leaders, excluding Blair.

However, an ally of Blair told the newspaper that he was expected to join a smaller executive board reporting to the main body, alongside Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, adviser Steve Witkoff, and senior officials from Arab and Western countries.

Another source said Blair could still take on a different role, noting that "the Americans and Israelis like him".

Blair, who served as Middle East envoy after leaving office in 2007, has been working for more than a year on proposals for Gaza through his Tony Blair Institute.

Israeli media have reported that he advanced a US-backed proposal to create a transitional authority in Gaza to replace Hamas and eventually hand control to the Palestinian Authority.

News that Blair might lead or take a prominent position in Trump's transitional plan provoked strong criticism, particularly because of the his role in the disastrous invasion of Iraq, which was later found to have been launched on flawed intelligence and led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis.

Following Trump's unveiling of a 20-point plan to end the Gaza war in September, Blair had been the only publicly named figure considered for a position on the board, with Trump calling him a "very good man".

"I've always liked Tony, but I want to find out that he’s an acceptable choice to everybody," Trump said, acknowledging the backlash.

Israel's Kan broadcaster also reported that Blair held a private, unpublicised meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss Trump's governance plan for post-war Gaza.

Trump's Gaza plan outlines how the war is expected to end and how the enclave would be administered afterwards.

While Netanyahu supports the proposal, critics say it offers no path to Palestinian statehood and envisions Gaza being run under a separate legal framework from the occupied West Bank.

Gaza has entered a fragile ceasefire as Israel continues to bombard parts of the enclave. Mediators, world leaders and the United States have urged Israel to move to the next phase of the truce, while Qatar's prime minister has warned that the ceasefire risks collapsing unless it leads toward a permanent agreement.