Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly held an unpublicised meeting with former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair sometime in late November, the Israeli broadcaster Kan said on Saturday.
The meeting was held to discuss the Donald Trump administration’s plans for governance in post-war Gaza, which Blair has been rumoured to partake in.
Sources told the public broadcaster that "Blair is working on an initiative that proposes the Palestinian Authority to take over the administration of specific areas within the Gaza Strip, with implementation beginning on a trial basis and becoming permanent if successful".
The report adds that such an initiative "rests on reforms within the Palestinian Authority’s institutions," which have been called for as part of the US-brokered ceasefire’s stipulations, and by European leaders.
The broadcaster claimed that the former UK prime minister has held talks with several Arab state leaders on the matter.
On Sunday, however, a different source denied that Blair had used the meeting to advance the Palestinian Authority’s administration of the Gaza Strip, they told The Times of Israel.
Blair, who was UK prime minister between 1997 and 2007, has been slated to head the Board of Peace tasked with overseeing the administration and recovery of post-war Gaza, proposed by Trump earlier this year, and recently mandated by the UN Security Council.
The so-called Board of Peace, which will include an international executive council set to be composed of Blair and several other Trump-approved officials, including his son-in-law Jared Kushner, has been lambasted by Palestinians, who view it as a neo-colonial project set to put Gaza under foreign control, and akin to British colonisation and mandates of several Middle Eastern territories in the 20th century.
Blair’s likely involvement in the Middle East has also been condemned due to his active role in the Iraq war in 2003, which saw him mislead the British public about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in the country.
The war had killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and thrust the country into insurgency and further conflict following its end in 2011.
The former UK premier’s 2007-2015 stint as envoy of the Quartet on the Middle East, a group of countries and international organisations involved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, was also criticised for favouring Israel and not working towards the achievement of a Palestinian state.
His Tony Blair Institute for Global Change has also raised eyebrows after receiving funds from pro-Israeli US businessman Larry Ellison and Saudi Arabia.