Two decades after he joined the United States' invasion of Iraq, former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair could lead a very different mission in the Middle East.
Blair is reportedly interested in guiding the future of a post-war Gaza, and he appears to have the backing of US President Donald Trump.
Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have fled the latest Israeli assault.
As peace talks between Hamas and Israel remain stagnant, the issue of governance is unresolved. If Hamas is driven out of the region, who will lead a post-war reconstruction?
Tony Blair's Middle East involvement
After leaving office in 2007, Blair served as Middle East envoy for the US, European Union, Russia and the United Nations — known as the Quartet — where he focused on strengthening the Palestinian state and creating the conditions for a two-state solution.
Multiple news outlets have reported this week that Blair is seeking a senior role in post-war Gaza and is backed by the US.
It has been reportedly proposed that Blair would chair a group called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), an interim position overseeing the reconstruction of the region, which would then be dissolved in favour of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
The PA has been urged by world leaders to engage in reforms, revise its constitution, and hold elections for a new president and parliament. The plan envisions "the eventual unifying of all the Palestinian territory under the PA".
While the role is not finalised, Blair received praise for his involvement in the Middle East from Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who was in London over the weekend.
"Tony Blair is someone who's always played a constructive role. He's someone who does look for solutions. He's someone who has been involved in the Middle East issues for some period of time, and I'm sure that he will always play a constructive role, because that's the nature of Tony Blair," Albanese said.
'Not surprising'
Srinjoy Bose, an associate professor of international relations at the University of NSW, said the selection of Blair was not surprising.
"He has tried to remain relevant in world politics for a number of years now, especially through his think tank, the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change," he told SBS News.
"So, this is an extension of his interest in the region."
Bose said Blair could be a good fit with the current US administration as a way of promoting relations with the UK and other allies.
However, it would be an unpopular appointment for other parts of the world.
"He has an incredibly controversial history because he advocated the invasion and occupation of Iraq based on false claims," he said.
"The Arab states, and obviously the Palestinians, might view Blair's ideas and interests as antithetical to Palestinian interests."
The 2016 Chilcot Inquiry found the UK government decided to go to war in Iraq before peaceful options had been exhausted, had no post-invasion strategy, and did not adequately track the deaths of Iraqi civilians during the occupation.
Its blistering report also singled out then-UK leader Blair, who it found had deliberately exaggerated the threat posed by Saddam Hussein and had committed to the war "no matter what".
'War criminal'
Simon Frankel Pratt, a senior lecturer of political science at The University of Melbourne, specialising in the study of international politics and security, said some would view Blair's appointment as "deeply illegitimate".
"In the views of most Palestinians, Tony Blair is a war criminal responsible in part for the Iraq war," he told SBS News.
"I think that Tony Blair's work as part of the Quartet didn't really impress very many people in Palestine.
"I don't think he would enjoy very much legitimacy amongst the Palestinian public or amongst partners in Palestinian government positions."
What else is in the US plan?
Blair's appointment would be part of a 21-point peace plan, a substantial departure from Trump's previous vision.
In February, Trump said he wanted to demolish the remaining structures in Gaza and transform the territory under US "ownership".
"The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it, too," Trump told reporters at the time.
He proposed transforming the seaside enclave into the "Riviera of the Middle East", proposing to resettle Palestinians from Gaza in Egypt and Jordan.
Pratt said the Riviera plan was never taken as a "serious proposal", but this new peace plan seems more legitimate.
"There's a lot in this plan that is similar to previous ones like the Egypt-backed plan from March," he said.
The proposal demands the immediate release of all 48 hostages still confined in Gaza, in return for permitting the entry of humanitarian assistance, halting frontline conflicts, and the discharge of several Palestinian prisoners and those held in administrative detention from Israeli military prisons.
The plan also calls for Hamas to relinquish weapons and grants amnesty to combatants who renounce violence.
Importantly, it states no Palestinians will be compelled to abandon their homes and affirms that anyone who departs "voluntarily" will be allowed to return.
US backing of Blair could be seen as a "softening" of Trump's position, according to Bose, but he said Trump can be unpredictable when it comes to the Middle East.
"I think Trump is constantly changing his position on various topics and issues," he said.
"Tomorrow he might go, 'Oh no, a sovereign Palestinian state is off the table', and his position might harden again."
What does this mean for the Palestinian Authority?
Pratt said this sidelining of the PA would be unpopular among Palestinians.
"I think that it would be a tough pill for a lot of Palestinians to swallow that all major governing decisions in Gaza are being made by an international board primarily comprising foreigners," he said.
Bose said the PA would have two main motivations to oppose the plan.
"One is that this is a colonial project, and two, Blair is a staunch advocate of Israel and has close ties to US establishment figures," he said.
"He will not be seen as an impartial interlocutor who runs a 'transitional administration'."
Will Israel agree?
Pratt said whether Israel agrees would be key to the plan's success.
"This plan doesn't hand off control to the Palestinian Authority right away, so it is potentially something that [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and his government would agree to because one of their conditions was that Gaza can't be governed by the PA," he said.
However, there is a key sticking point.
"The GITA proposal grants security control of the Gaza Strip to an international force combining potentially foreign personnel and especially vetted domestic police force," he said.
"This is significantly incompatible with Israel's insistence on retaining security control," Pratt said.
He said there is a consensus in Israel's defence establishment that only Israel can prevent Hamas from smuggling weapons and rebuilding its military capacity.
"Security and counter terrorism are the big practical questions here. Everything else can be worked out."
