Tony Blair, Britain’s former prime minister whose legacy was heavily tarnished by the 2003 war in Iraq, has long been a contentious figure in the Middle East and beyond.

His potentially leading role in Donald Trump’s peace plan for Gaza will likely do little to change that.

Blair, 72, who is set to sit on the board of an international transitional authority in the Palestinian territory, is credited with crafting the US leader’s plan alongside Trump’s son-in-law and advisor Jared Kushner.

“I wouldn’t say that Trump anointed him, it’s that he managed to convince President Trump of the merits of this plan,” Sanam Vakil, Middle East programme director at the Chatham House think tank, told AFP.

Blair brings a wealth of regional contacts and experience after spending eight years as the envoy for the Middle East Quartet of the European Union, United Nations, United States and Russia.

A savvy and confident global operator, he will be seen as bringing heft to any leadership role in Gaza.

Critics argue he achieved little as envoy and that he is ill-suited to play peacemaker, as he is reviled by many Arabs and discredited in Britain for joining the US-led invasion of Iraq.

“His reputation, of course, is mired by his involvement in the Iraq war,” Vakil said.

“But at the same time, he is trusted by leaders in the Gulf … (who) see him as a potential bridge-builder candidate,” she added, stressing that this did not correspond to Palestinian support.

‘Horrible idea’

Blair, a skilled communicator famed for his strong self-belief, has maintained an informal regional role through his institute and consultancy roles.

He contributed to the 2020 historic Abraham Accords brokered during the first Trump presidency, which normalised relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, according to his office.

Israel appears to welcome his possible new role, with Blair said to enjoy a good rapport with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He has always had a corner of his heart devoted to the unfinished project of calming down this conflict,” Ehud Barak, who served as Israel´s premier in the early 2000, told the Washington Post.

The Palestinians seem less enthusiastic about his participation.

“That is the most horrible idea,” Mustafa Barghuti, head of the Palestinian National Initiative, told CNN.

“To bring a foreign person to run the Palestinian affairs in Gaza is absolutely unacceptable, especially with the reputation that Mr. Blair has.”

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on rights in the Palestinian territories, was equally blunt.

“Tony Blair? Hell no,” she posted on X. “Shall we meet in The Hague perhaps?” she added, referring to the International Criminal Court amid calls for him to face war crimes charges over Iraq.

Blair has remained unapologetic about joining the 2003 invasion, which triggered accusations that the UK government was “a poodle” of then-US president George W Bush.

But he has expressed regret about intelligence failures and the lack of post-war planning.

“At least you could say we were removing a despot and trying to introduce democracy,” he told AFP in a 2023 interview.

‘Cool Britannia’

A youthful Blair first became a lawmaker for centre-left Labour in 1983. Within 11 years, he was spearheading reform as a leader.

He became prime minister in 1997— the first of three general election wins, an unprecedented feat for Labour — and, at 43, Britain’s youngest premier since 1812.

Riding a wave of “Cool Britannia” optimism in his 10-year tenure, Blair oversaw a period of prosperity, enacted key constitutional changes and expanded gay rights.

He also secured a historic peace accord in Northern Ireland.

But his political fortunes shifted in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

One million people protested on London’s streets against invading Iraq, and his domestic reputation eroded further after the evidence for the war proved flawed.

A power struggle with finance minister Gordon Brown led to Blair being ousted in 2007.

But Blair, a committed Christian, remained a globe-trotting statesman. He set up a foundation to support interfaith dialogue and counter extremism.

He has also worked with governments in developing nations in Africa, although his lucrative consultancy work has drawn criticism.

• All flights cancelled at Kabul airport on Tuesday.
• Online businesses and banking systems frozen.
• UN operations fall back to radio communications.

KABUL: The United Nations called on Afghanistan’s Taliban authorities Monday to immediately restore internet and telecommunications in the country, 24 hours after a nationwide blackout was imposed.

The government began shutting down high-speed internet connections to some provinces earlier this month to prevent “vice”, on the orders of its leader Hibatullah Akhundzada.

Mobile phone signal and internet service were weakened on Monday night until connectivity was less than 1% of ordinary levels.

Afghans are unable to contact each other, online businesses and the banking systems have frozen, and the diaspora abroad cannot send crucial remittances to their families.

All flights were cancelled at Kabul airport on Tuesday, AFP journalists saw.

“The cut in access has left Afghanistan almost completely cut off from the outside world, and risks inflicting significant harm on the Afghan people, including by threatening economic stability and exacerbating one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises,” the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said in a statement.

“The current blackout also constitutes a further restriction on access to information and freedom of expression in Afghanistan,” it added.

It is the first time since the Taliban government won its insurgency in 2021 that communications have been shut down in the country.

“We are blind without phones and the internet,” said 42-year-old shopkeeper Najibullah in Kabul.

“All our business relies on mobiles. The deliveries are with mobiles. It’s like a holiday, everyone is at home. The market is totally frozen.”

The telecommunications ministry refused to let journalists enter the building in Kabul on Tuesday.

Minutes before the shutdown on Monday evening, a government official warned AFP that the fibre optic network would be cut, and affect mobile phone services.

“Eight to nine thousand telecommunications pillars” would be shut down, he said, adding that the blackout would last “until further notice”.

“There isn’t any other way or system to communicate […] the banking sector, customs, everything across the country will be affected,” said the official, who asked not to be named.

Radio communications

Diplomatic sources told AFP on Tuesday that mobile networks were mostly shut down.

A UN source, meanwhile, said “operations are severely impacted, falling back to radio communications and limited satellite links”.

Telephone services are often routed over the internet, sharing the same fibre optic lines, especially in countries with limited telecoms infrastructure.

Over the past weeks, internet connections have been extremely slow or intermittent.

On September 16, Balkh provincial spokesman Attaullah Zaid said the ban had come from the Taliban leader’s orders.

“This measure was taken to prevent vice, and alternative options will be put in place across the country to meet connectivity needs,” he wrote on social media.

At the time, AFP correspondents reported the same restrictions in the northern provinces of Badakhshan and Takhar, as well as in Kandahar, Helmand, Nangarhar, and Uruzgan in the south.

The Taliban leader reportedly ignored warnings from some officials this month about the economic fallout of cutting the internet and ordered authorities to press ahead with a nationwide ban.

Netblocks, a watchdog organisation that monitors cybersecurity and internet governance, said the blackout “appears consistent with the intentional disconnection of service”.

On Tuesday, it said connectivity had flatlined below 1%, with no restoration of service observed.

In 2024, Kabul had touted the 9,350-kilometre (5,800-mile) fibre optic network — largely built by former US-backed governments — as a “priority” to bring the country closer to the rest of the world and lift it out of poverty.

Iran said on Tuesday that 120 nationals being deported from the United States under President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown will fly home this week.

“120 people should be deported and flown home over the next couple of days,” foreign ministry consular affairs official Hossein Noushabadi told the Tasnim news agency.

“The US immigration service has decided to deport around 400 Iranians currently in the United States, most of them after entering illegally.”

The New York Times reported that some 100 Iranians who had sought refuge in the United States were being deported to their homeland under an agreement between Washington and Tehran.

It said the rare deal between the longtime foes was the fruit of several months of negotiations.

Contacted by AFP, the US State Department did not immediately comment.

The newspaper said an aircraft chartered by the US authorities had left the southern state of Louisiana on Monday evening and was expected to land in Tehran later Tuesday after a stopover in the Gulf state of Qatar.

It said the deportations were “the most stark push yet by the Trump administration to deport migrants even to places with harsh human rights conditions”.

Earlier this year, the United States already deported a number of Iranians, many of them Christians, to the Central American countries of Costa Rica and Panama.