Tony Blair should be part of Trump’s Gaza peace deal, UK’s Middle East minister says
Britain’s Middle East minister has put forward the case for Sir Tony Blair to be on the board governing Gaza after the second phase of the peace deal is agreed.
Minister Hamish Falconer praised the former prime minister’s qualities in an exclusive interview with The Independent, as concerns remain high that a fragile ceasefire between Hamas and Israel may not hold.
The minister, whose portfolio includes North Africa and has played a key role in the migrant crisis, denied Keir Starmer’s decision to cut international aid was fueling the flow of illegal people into Europe and the UK.
Addressing the ongoing situation in Gaza, he said: “I think Tony Blair obviously has a huge amount of experience, both in the Middle East, and on disarmament issues from the IRA.
“Clearly he has a real contribution. Questions about phase 2 need to be negotiated and we want to make sure the peace committee works for everyone. But obviously Tony Blair has a real contribution too.”
The former prime minister has been involved in talks with the Trump White House and has been floated as a potential candidate to help govern Gaza if phase 2 of the agreement can be completed. He worked with Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, in formulating a peace plan.
Supporters say the former prime minister was instrumental in ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland and that Arab nations as well as Israel trust him.
Critics in the UK point out that Sir Tony’s role in the Iraq War destabilized the region and ultimately led to his ouster as Prime Minister in 2007.
But with allegations that Israel and Hamas are breaking the current ceasefire despite the exchange of hostages and prisoners, Mr Falconer, a former diplomat and now MP for Lincoln, warned phase 1 could not be taken for granted.
He said: “It is absolutely vital that the ceasefire continues and that we move on to the really important questions in phase 2.
“I know incredibly intimately how important the ceasefire is, both for the people of Gaza, for the people we’re trying to support with medical evacuations and other things, and also for the stability and security that knowing that this war that’s been so devastating is over can give Israel and the entire region.
“Obviously, the issues in phase 1, the ceasefire questions, are not everything. They are extremely important. But we need to move on to the questions in phase 2, and those are questions that the peace committee, the Gaza technical committee and all the more complex questions that are laid out in the 20-point plan are really very relevant.”
Minister spoke Independent from a migrant processing center in Algeria, with a mission that also covers North Africa and the migrant crisis.
He warned that the “simple slogans” used by the previous Tory government with its “stop the boats” mantra were not the solution to a “complex problem”.
But he also rejected criticism that canceling international aid to the region and elsewhere was worsening the migrant crisis.
He said: “I have been providing international aid and I can say that I am a great believer in the importance of aid and as Middle East minister we were really proud to protect vital and necessary aid to Gaza, for example.
“Considering the seriousness of the situation in Sudan, we also fenced off aid. But I can also say that, for example, I lived in South Sudan for two years.
“It is one of the poorest places in the world, but the majority on boats are not South Sudanese. In fact, they are a much smaller proportion of the population than in much richer countries, such as the large numbers of Iraqi Kurds traveling to Iraqi Kurdistan.
“Kurdistan is by no means as poor as other places, so I am not disputing the importance of the budget and the contribution that upstream work can make.
“But I think we also need to focus on the flows as they actually are, and when you look at the top five, top 10 countries where people on small boats are coming from, they’re not necessarily the five poorest countries that are in danger of being damaged by war. So I’m really interested in the precise mechanisms of these flows and what we can do to prevent them.”
