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Palestinian VP meets Tony Blair to discuss Gaza’s ‘day after’
Palestinian Authority (PA) Vice President Hussein al-Sheikh has met former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to discuss post-war plans for Gaza and the implementation of US President Donald Trump’s plan.
Al-Sheikh affirmed the PA’s readiness to work with Trump, Blair, and relevant partners “to consolidate the ceasefire, deliver aid, release hostages and prisoners, and embark on recovery and reconstruction”, according to a statement.
He also stressed the importance of “halting the undermining of the Palestinian Authority, particularly the return of withheld Palestinian funds, and preventing the undermining of the two-state solution, as a prelude to a comprehensive and lasting peace in accordance with international law”.
Blair – a highly divisive figure in the Arab world for his role in the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq – is envisaged in Trump’s 20-point plan to become the de facto governor-general of Gaza after Hamas is pushed out.
Back to British mandate, revive Mandatory Palestine?!
What role will the Palestinian Authority play in Gaza?
US President Donald Trump’s plan for ending the Gaza war holds out the prospect of the Palestinian Authority, based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and led by President Mahmoud Abbas, eventually taking control of Gaza.
But that is only after it completes reforms. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected Gaza being run by the Palestinian Authority.
Abbas lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007. Trump’s proposal says Hamas must end its rule of Gaza and foresees the territory being run by a Palestinian technocratic committee supervised by an international body chaired by him and including ex-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
Tony Blair involvement ‘alarming’ as Gaza’s future governance unclear
There is strong regional and international keenness to end the war on Gaza, but thorny issues prevail, says Zeidon Alkinani, a lecturer in Middle East politics at Georgetown University in Qatar.
Tony Blair’s involvement in itself is “alarming” because of the British leader’s role in the Iraq War, and there are “a lot of concerns about the loopholes and the gaps in understanding the Israeli stance in the long-term future” of Gaza, Alkinani said.
The Palestinian Authority’s possible involvement in governing Gaza, meanwhile, could also be controversial, he told Al Jazeera.
“We cannot deny that many Israeli politicians and businessmen have had longstanding relationships with many members, former and current, of the Palestinian Authority,” said Alkinani.
They may have ideas for post-war Gaza that contradict “what the Gazan people would want to imagine their future to be”, he added.
