Once British-occupied, Egypt balks at hosting ‘Gaza governor’ Tony Blair

There is growing opposition at both the public and political levels in Egypt to the possible presence of the seven-person international board, chaired by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in al-Arish, the capital of the North Sinai Governorate, near the southern border of Gaza.

Known as the International Transitional Authority (GITA), the board will be tasked with overseeing Gaza's transitional governance for up to five years. It will enjoy US backing under a plan led by US President Donald Trump.

As highlighted in the past few days after Trump unveiled his plan for Gaza, the GITA will initially operate from al-Arish and later transition into the coastal enclave alongside a multinational force once "stability" is achieved.

According to political observers, the plan seems to draw from models like those used in East Timor and Kosovo, emphasising UN oversight, Gulf state involvement, and eventual handover to Palestinian control without displacing the residents of Gaza.

However, the concept of such an international body establishing a presence in Egyptian territory has provoked anger among some Egyptians.

"We do not trust Blair at the personal level, a man who is strongly connected with colonial heritage," Kamal Abu Eita, a former minister of labour and a senior official of the leftist al-Karama (Dignity) Party, told The New Arab.

"Egyptians are opposed to all forms of occupation of Gaza, a territory that has to be ruled by its own people only," he added.

Egypt has welcomed President Trump's plan for ending the war in Gaza and establishing peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

On 6 October, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi even described the plan as "the right path to lasting peace and lasting stability".

Egypt, now hosting indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas on the implementation of President Trump's plan, has not officially expressed opposition to the GITA's presence in al-Arish.

However, on 3 October, Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty stated that the American president's plan required further discussion, citing what he described as "loopholes" in it.

Those loopholes, the Egyptian foreign minister noted, are primarily connected with Gaza's rule and security arrangements in the Palestinian territory.

Security risks

Opposition among Egyptians to hosting the proposed GITA stems from a mix of sovereignty concerns, historical sensitivities, and strategic priorities in Israel's ongoing war on Palestine, political observers said.

While the aim of instituting such an entity is, as understood from President Trump's plan, to "stabilise" the region with UN and Gulf involvement, Egyptians view it as undermining Palestinian self-determination and potentially destabilising Egypt.

North Sinai witnessed fierce battles between the Egyptian army and police, on the one hand, and a branch of the Islamic State group, on the other, for over a decade, ultimately leading to the authorities' success in eradicating the group in 2021 and declaring all of Sinai 'free'.

Nevertheless, there are fears that a foreign-led body establishing a presence in Sinai can be seen as inviting external interference, potentially reigniting militancy in this Egyptian territory or smuggling networks across the Gaza border.

"The idea in itself cannot be accepted, especially in its association with Tony Blair, a man who is accused in his home country of being a war criminal against the background of the 2003 Iraq war," Ahmed Youssef, a political science professor at Cairo University, told TNA.

"Egypt paid dearly in the blood of its troops in the past years to make Sinai secure and free it from terrorist elements," he added.

Egypt has repeatedly rejected arrangements that place non-Palestinian entities in control near its borders, fearing it could draw Sinai into the Gaza conflict or facilitate unwanted migration or refugee movement.

This echoes Cairo's firm stance against Israeli proposals for the relocation of Gaza's residents into Sinai, in which it insists that such forced could threaten the 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

In October 2023, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said relocating the Palestinians to Sinai would encourage them to stage attacks against Israel from this Egyptian territory, hence imperilling the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty.

Colonial overtones

For many in Egypt, Tony Blair is strongly associated with Western imperialism, especially given his role in the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Egyptians and Arabs broadly see his involvement in the new body to be formed within President Trump's plan for Gaza as a "colonial viceroy", reminiscent of Britain's Balfour Declaration (1917) and the Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916), which carved up the Middle East without Arab input.

An Egyptian observer has described Blair in a post on Facebook on 6 October as the "British High Commissioner", a term evocative of British occupation of Arab states in the past.

The GITA's structure itself, containing international billionaires and executives, such as Egyptian business tycoon Naguib Sawiris and US investor Marc Rowan, at its top, with Palestinians in subordinate roles, reinforces this view.

Some Egyptians describe it as a form of "Western-Israeli partition" that marginalises Gaza's people, in particular, and all Palestinians, in general.

"This is a new form of Western occupation of the Gaza Strip," Abu Eita remarked.

"Egypt has to reject the presence of such an authority in its territory because this presence violates Egypt's sovereignty over its land," he added.

The concept of colonialism is a highly sensitive issue in Egypt, in general, and in relation to Sinai, in particular.

This Egyptian territory, larger than the sizes of Gaza, the occupied West Bank, Israel and Lebanon combined, was occupied by Israel in June 1967 and liberated by the Egyptian army only in October 1973.

Ironically enough, debates over Blair's board coincide with the 52nd anniversary of the liberation of Sinai from Israeli occupation, an occasion celebrated by the Egyptians each year as a symbol of Egypt's rejection of foreign presence in its territory.

Palestinian unity

Egypt has been advocating for a unified Palestinian authority, one that excludes Hamas but is led by technocrats under the Palestinian Authority (PA), as a path to Palestinian statehood.

It has taken a series of measures to make the prospect of the PA taking over the rule of both Gaza and the West Bank possible, including the training of thousands of Palestinian security personnel in the mission of taking over Gaza's security after the withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Cairo hopes this withdrawal will pave the way for the required administrative unity between Gaza and the occupied West Bank for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

However, the GITA proposal splits Gaza from the occupied West Bank, excludes meaningful Palestinian veto power, and imposes external oversight, which Cairo sees as prolonging the conflict rather than resolving it, analysts said.

"There is no mention of the West Bank in the new plan for Gaza, which widens the split between the two Palestinian territories," Professor Youssef said. "Egypt lobbies for the establishment of a Palestinian state in both territories against Israeli plans to keep them apart in Israel's bid to abort Palestinian statehood efforts as a whole."

Such concerns might explain why Egypt is pushing for alternatives to Blair's proposed authority, like an Arab-led committee for Gaza aid and reconstruction.

Egypt officially calls for "full Palestinian sovereignty" over Gaza, an entity that should not be separable from the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Hosting the board would contradict such calls, potentially alienating Egypt's domestic pro-Palestinian public and straining ties with allies like Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

At the same time, President Sisi's regime, already criticised for failing to support initiatives by ordinary people to break the siege on Gaza, risks backlash for appearing to collaborate with plans by Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that prioritise Israel's security over Arab interests.

In a way, this reflects Egypt's balancing act between supporting Palestinians and safeguarding its borders and influence, observers said.

During a visit to the Egyptian capital this month, Blair is expected to address these issues.

The same observers, however, cast doubts on the former British premier's ability to sway Cairo without significant concessions on Palestinian inclusion.

"It will be very difficult to convince Egypt to act against its policy of empowering the Palestinians to govern themselves," Abu Eita said.