Tony Blair ‘dropped’ from Gaza ‘Board of Peace’ shortlist; Hamas welcomes move as ‘step in right direction’

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has reportedly been removed from consideration for US President Donald Trump-proposed so-called Gaza “Board of Peace,” a development Hamas has welcomed as a “step in the right direction.”

The Financial Times reported on Monday that Arab and Muslim nations had objected to Blair’s involvement in the purported “transitional authority” that Trump has unveiled as part of his 20-point plan, which the US president claims is aimed at ending the Israeli regime’s war of genocide on the Gaza Strip.

The reported development came as the coastal sliver’s Hamas resistance movement has confirmed it had urged mediators to exclude Blair over his “blatant bias towards the [Israeli] occupation.”

According to the FT, Blair, previously the only publicly identified candidate for the body, which Trump has said would personally chair, was quietly dropped after regional opposition, despite lobbying and behind-the-scenes efforts to secure a prominent role for him in the so-called board.

His involvement had been linked to proposals drafted partly by the self-described Tony Blair Institute for Global Change alongside Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

Blair’s candidacy had drawn criticism across the Muslim world due to his legacy in the 2003 United States-led invasion of Iraq, which was later found to have simply conjured up accusations of harboring “weapons of mass destruction” by the Iraqi regime at the time in order to sell the invasion.

His record as a member of the Middle East Quartet had also amassed criticism in light of the UK’s widely-reported and verified strong favoritism benefiting the Israeli regime.

Even Trump, himself, acknowledged in October that Blair was a “controversial figure,” whose acceptability to all sides remained uncertain.

Hamas’ official Taher al-Nunu said reports of Blair’s likely removal aligned with the movement’s repeated calls on mediators to keep him out of any Gaza-related body.

The FT report, however, suggested Blair could still play a less central role. Blair’s office declined to comment.

Al-Nunu reiterated that the movement remained “ready for a long-term truce” provided the Israeli regime upheld all terms of a full ceasefire, something that Tel Aviv has so far clearly avoided by repeatedly violating a ceasefire deal that was reached in early October.

The Hamas official also stressed that any plan involving an international force tasked with forcibly disarming Palestinian resistance groups was “rejected and has never been discussed.”

He noted that Hamas had not received clarity on the mandate of any potential international presence in Gaza, and noted that the movement did not believe countries would agree to such a mission.

On the political front, al-Nunu said Hamas was prepared to “immediately” transfer governance of Gaza to an independent national technocratic committee, something that the group agreed to help realize when signing the ceasefire deal.

He reiterated Hamas’s position that the resistance’s weapons remained part of the Palestinians’ national arsenal.

Al-Nunu, meanwhile, warned that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ambitions “extend beyond the borders of Palestine and threaten the countries of the region.”

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