THE White House is backing a plan to install Tony Blair as the temporary leader of the Gaza Strip, according to Israeli media reports.
Under the plans, the former prime minister would reportedly lead a body called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (Gita) that would be Gaza’s “supreme political and legal authority” for as long as five years and without any direct involvement of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
According to reports in Haaretz and the Times of Israel, the plan is modelled on the administrations that initially oversaw Timor-Leste and Kosovo’s transitions to statehood and envisions “the eventual unifying of all the Palestinian territory under the PA”.
Under the plan, Palestinians would not be made to leave the territory, as many had feared with previous Trump proposals to develop it as the “Gaza Reviera”.
If approved, Blair would head a secretariat of up to 25 people and chair a seven-person board to oversee an executive body running the territory.
It would evidently spark controversy, with Blair resented by many Palestinians for his role in the Middle East – notably backing the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
We previously reported on how Blair joined Trump in a White House meeting to discuss plans for the future of Gaza in August.
