World
Tony Blair takes on larger role as US-led Board of Peace struggles to advance Gaza plan
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — Former UK prime minister Tony Blair is taking on a larger role in the Board of Peace tasked with overseeing the postwar management of Gaza, three sources familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel this week.
Blair was passed up for the multinational panel’s top envoy post last year when the US decided to appoint former UN envoy Nickolay Mladenov to serve as the Board of Peace’s High Representative for Gaza, following pushback from several Arab countries, a US official said, citing discomfort with Blair’s active support for the Iraq War beginning in 2003.
But Blair built good relationships with many regional stakeholders and engaged heavily on the issue throughout the Gaza war, even crafting a proposal to establish a postwar transitional body responsible for governing the enclave in place of Hamas. The idea was embraced by the Trump administration and served as a precursor to the Board of Peace that Washington would establish late last year.
The momentum created by the Board of Peace’s September 2025 roll-out helped pave the way for a hostage release and ceasefire deal the next month, as both Israel and Hamas felt unprecedented global pressure to end their war after over two years.
But since that initial truce, efforts to advance subsequent parts of US President Donald Trump’s 20-point plan for ending the war in the Gaza Strip — which the Board of Peace was established to promote — have largely stalled.
The Trump plan envisions Hamas handing over its weapons and control of Gaza to a new government of Palestinian technocrats, while internal and multinational security forces phase out the Israel Defense Forces, under the auspices of the Board of Peace.
Talks on disarming Hamas have extended for months with little breakthrough, while Israel has moved to expand its military presence in Gaza, with the Strip’s population of some 2 million squeezed into decrepit conditions in a Hamas-ruled area that amounts to roughly one-third of the territory.
The US believes Hamas compliance with a phased disarmament program, in which each step will be verified by international arbitrators and sees mutual Israeli concessions, is the key to unlocking major international funding and construction projects for Gaza.
But Mideast mediators believe that as elections approach in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government is very unlikely to take subsequent steps to ease its control of Gaza, even if Hamas were to accept the Board of Peace’s disarmament proposal first — a prospect that itself appears low. Israeli buy-in would mean allowing for the entry of alternative governing and security bodies in Gaza, where large parts of Netanyahu’s coalition want to establish settlements.
It is against this backdrop that Blair will begin taking on a larger role.
He has already been serving on the Board of Peace’s Executive Board, as well as the Board of Peace’s Gaza Executive Board that is focused specifically on the Strip, but neither of those has actually been operating since they were unveiled by the White House in January, according to the three sources familiar with the matter.
Many of the Gaza Executive Board members have been involved in mediating between Hamas and Israel in recent months, but the panel has not functioned as a unit, the sources said.
One of Blair’s new tasks will be to help manage the Board of Peace and its various bodies. Mladenov will continue operating as the high representative for Gaza with his own office, the sources said.
Blair will also take on an elevated role with regard to the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza, two of the sources said.
He has already been engaging regularly with the Palestinian Authority on a reform process, so that it can eventually take over Gaza and hold peace talks with Israel, as envisioned by the 20-point plan.
Blair will continue his contact with the PA as his Board of Peace portfolios expand, the three sources said.
Blair’s Institute for Global Change has also run training sessions for the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza, the technocratic panel that is supposed to replace Hamas in Gaza. The NCAG has been stuck in Cairo for months, though, as the Board of Peace’s progress has stalled.
The institute will continue serving as a resource for the Board of Peace, one of the sources said.
A public announcement regarding Blair’s expanded work is not expected, and his office declined to comment on the matter.
