TEHRAN – Washington and Tel Aviv’s latest idea for Gaza’s “post-war transition” is as reckless as it is insulting: hand the reins to Tony Blair. Draft plans released by the White House name him as a member—and potential coordinator—of an international body supervising Gaza’s transitional governance, under a board chaired by Donald Trump.

Palestinian voices have already rejected the notion outright. Hamas official Husam Badran described Blair as “a partner of the devil” and argued that the former British prime minister “has brought nothing good to Palestine, the Arabs, or to Muslims.”

This is not mere hyperbole. It is history speaking. To place Blair in charge of Gaza would be to turn one of the darkest pages of the Middle East back onto itself. He is remembered not as a peacemaker but as an architect of war, failure, and profiteering.

Iraq: The original sin

No dossier on Blair can begin anywhere but Iraq. In 2003, he dragged Britain into George W. Bush’s invasion based on lies.

Central to the deception was the so-called Dodgy Dossier — a propaganda file cooked up under MI6’s Operation Mass Appeal. Released in February 2003 as “Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation,” it was touted as high-grade intelligence but turned out to be largely plagiarized from an academic article and internet sources. Despite this, it was brandished by Washington’s Colin Powell at the UN to help sell the war.

The Chilcot Inquiry confirmed what the world already knew: Blair exaggerated Saddam Hussein’s weapons threat and deceived the British public. He sent troops before peaceful options were tried, and the planning for the aftermath was “wholly inadequate.”

The toll was catastrophic: hundreds of thousands dead, a region destabilized, ISIS rising from the ruins. To this day, he faces calls for prosecution. A million Britons even petitioned against his knighthood, branding him a war criminal.

The Iraq calamity was not an accident. It was a choice. And it is the shadow that will forever follow Blair into any room he enters — especially in the Islamic world.

Quartet envoy: A record of nothing

Defenders point to his years as Middle East envoy for the Quartet (2007–2015). Formed in 2002 by the UN, US, EU, and Russia, the Quartet was meant to steer the Israeli–Palestinian peace process and lay the foundations for a two-state solution — a vehicle for progress that never arrived.

But what did he accomplish? Not peace. Not statehood. Not an end to the siege or settlement.

He avoided Gaza for a full year after taking the post. Former Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath put it plainly: Blair “achieved so very little because of his gross efforts to please the Israelis.”

His most touted success was a deal to free radio frequencies for a Palestinian phone company — a move tainted by his ties to JP Morgan, which stood to benefit.

The pattern was already clear: Blair was more at ease cutting deals in Israeli boardrooms than listening to Palestinians under blockade.

Blair Inc.: Crisis as business

Since leaving office, Blair has turned politics into profit with an ease that borders on the grotesque.

His consultancy and later the Tony Blair Institute (TBI) have advised rulers spanning post-Soviet republics to oil-rich desert kingdoms, and reaching from the shores of the Mediterranean to Africa’s interior, providing “governance reform” in exchange for millions.

Groups including Human Rights Watch, the Human Rights Foundation, and Corporate Europe Observatory accused him of whitewashing dictators.

He earned millions from JP Morgan, whose investments in Iraq raised accusations of “blood money.” He struck secret deals with Riyadh.

He courted ultra-Zionist billionaires such as Oracle’s Larry Ellison — a close friend of Netanyahu and among the Israeli military’s largest private donors — whose $80 million contribution helped turn TBI into a lobbying machine. In Britain, the institute pushed schemes to commercialize NHS patient data, projects critics called “a sales pitch for Oracle.”

And in Gaza, TBI’s fingerprints are already visible. Leaked plans for “redevelopment” — from artificial islands to tax-free enclaves — bore their mark: proposals that treated devastation as a business opportunity and Palestinians as obstacles to be moved aside.

For Blair, every crisis is a contract. Every war zone is a workshop.

The wrong man for Gaza

Palestinians recoil at the very mention of his name because Blair does not symbolize peace; he represents the arrogance of outsiders who helped wreck the region and then returned to manage the wreckage. His appointment would not heal wounds — it would salt them.

Gaza needs sovereignty, security, accountability, and reconstruction led by Palestinians, not another foreign overseer in a suit hawking glossy investor brochures.

Blair has no mandate in Palestine, little credibility in the region, and shrinking trust at home; his presence would delegitimize any transitional body before it began.

Appointing Tony Blair would be like putting the arsonist in charge of the fire brigade — and after the Iraq firestorm, the world should know better than to hand him the matches.