Engagement Ring

The US plan ousts Hamas and forms an administration that will later be handed over to a reformed Palestinian Authority. By Maziar Motamedi Share Save Tony Blair, who was British prime minister during the 2003 United States-led invasion and occupation of Iraq based on false claims about weapons of mass destruction, and is regarded by many in the Arab world and in the United Kingdom as a “war criminal”, has helped develop “day after” plans for Israel’s war on Gaza. The highly divisive figure is envisaged in United States President Donald Trump’s 21-point plan presented to Arab and Muslim leaders to become the de facto governor-general of the besieged and bombarded enclave after Hamas is pushed out, according to Israeli and Western media reports. Some reports say Blair’s ultimate role is not finalised, but the outlines are clear. Here’s a look at Trump’s plan, what we know about Blair’s role, and what it would mean for everyone involved if it were to all go ahead. After numerous attempts that have not ended the genocidal war on Gaza, Trump and his team have come up with a new proposal that also purports to leave the door open for the future formation of a sovereign Palestinian state – something Israel has repeatedly rejected. The plan wants all 48 captives still held in Gaza to be released immediately, in exchange for allowing entry of humanitarian aid, freezing battle lines, and the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli military jails. The plan would also see Hamas disarm, offer fighters who renounce violence amnesty, and allow others who refuse to leave Gaza. Crucially, it specifies that no Palestinians will be forced to leave their territory, and says anyone who leaves “voluntarily” will be allowed to return to their homes. If true in practice, this would signal a U-turn for Trump, who shocked the world in February when he openly touted ethnic cleansing by musing about the US “taking over” Gaza and permanently moving out its more than two million residents, about half of them children. He also released a video generated through artificial intelligence to showcase his vision for the so-called “Gaza Riviera”. The new proposal prides itself on offering a “credible pathway” to Palestinian statehood, marking another departure as the Republican president has been reluctant to endorse the two-state solution amid a surge of Western nations doing so, such as the UK, France and Canada. The US and Israel reportedly wish to keep the notorious GHF, the humanitarian organisation they founded to push aside the United Nations and other international aid agencies delivering aid to Palestinians on the ground. Many hundreds of famine-stricken people, including children, have been shot by Israeli soldiers and US mercenaries operating at GHF sites. Israeli figures and a US consulting firm, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), have been linked with the GHF and the Gaza Riviera plans. In a response to a UK parliamentary committee inquiry published in late July, BCG said an investigation it commissioned found that some of its US-based staff sidestepped its risk controls to do work related to GHF and to “post-war reconstruction” for the Palestinian enclave. Trump’s plan to broker a grand bargain has been presented to the leaders of Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Indonesia and Turkiye on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York. But as the Israeli military continues to systematically destroy and seize Gaza City and starve Palestinians in Gaza while advancing with a vision to annex the occupied West Bank, the plan appears to be provisional at best. Neither Israel nor Hamas has officially commented on it. The former UK prime minister, who fervently backed then-US President George W Bush in invading Iraq, is reportedly involved through his Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, which claims it wants to “turn bold ideas into reality”. Trump’s plan reportedly considers appointing him as the head of a newly established entity called the Gaza International Transitional Authority (GITA), which would administer Gaza after Hamas is ousted for a transition period of up to several years. GITA would seek a UN mandate, something Arab states have emphasised they will require, and would also initially sideline the Palestinian Authority (PA) – as Israel continues to say it will not allow the PA to have a future governance role. The PA is urged to engage in serious reforms, get a revised constitution and hold elections for a new president and parliament before taking over from GITA, which will oversee the reconstruction of the Palestinian enclave. An international stabilisation force, largely drawn from Arab and Muslim countries, would be deployed to provide security and train a new Palestinian security force in Gaza. Prabowo Subianto, the president of Indonesia, the country with the largest Muslim population, told the UNGA he was ready to send in thousands of peacekeeping forces, and ended his speech with “shalom”. Blair has not commented on the new proposal. In January 2024, when Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Blair met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former war cabinet minister Benny Gantz in Israel in relation to a “voluntary resettlement” plan of Palestinians in Gaza, his institution said the report was a “lie”. After serving as the UK prime minister for 10 years, when Blair resigned in 2007, he was immediately appointed as the Middle East envoy for the Quartet – the UN, US, European Union, and Russia. His official remit was to support Palestinian institution-building, economic development, and to liaise on governance and security reforms. He formally stepped down from the role in mid-2015, but has continued projects through his institution. So, he has some experience in the region. However, the experience was not a happy one for most people in the region, especially the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who were killed during the war, or the millions who were marked by the invasion that changed the face of the region. To this day, critics in the Middle East and the UK brand Blair a “war criminal”, and he remains a toxic figure in some quarters. Palestinian commentators have also said Blair failed them as peace envoy despite the quintessential British role in the conflict stretching over a century. They have argued that while he oversaw economic projects during his tenure, he did little to halt illegal Israeli settlement expansion and settler violence, or advance Palestinian statehood, with some even accusing him of impeding statehood as a friend of Israel. Blair continues to be a polarising figure in domestic British politics as well, as his popularity vastly plummeted following the Iraq invasion. His involvement in determining the future of Gaza has been met with shock and scepticism among some commentators. Once it was clear that Satan was fully occupied elsewhere Tony Blair was the obvious choice to govern Gaza for Trump and Netanyahu. — George Galloway (@georgegalloway) September 26, 2025 But beyond Blair, the 21-point plan has been criticised online and in some media as a neocolonial takeover of Gaza with no actual guarantees that a competent Palestinian leadership will be allowed to govern in the future. The plan has been touted in Israeli media as a relatively better option compared with more extreme ideas floating around in Washington and Tel Aviv, particularly revolving around forcing as many Palestinians out of the enclave as Israel destroys the little infrastructure left in Gaza that supports their means of basic living, as it kills dozens of civilians daily. For its part, Israel has emphasised it will retain “security control” over Gaza regardless of any future plans. Follow Al Jazeera English:...

Indian leader controversially refers to the politically-charged win as an extension of ‘Operation Sindoor’. By Edna Mohamed and News Agencies Share Save India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has contentiously invoked the conflict with Pakistan in May, which brought the nuclear-armed neighbours to the cusp of a fifth all-out war, to celebrate India’s Asia Cup final cricket win against their regional arch foes. “#OperationSindoor on the games field. Outcome is the same – India wins! Congrats to our cricketers,” Modi posted on X on Monday. Modi was referring to the four-day conflict between the two nations, with its focus on Indian-administered Kashmir, in May, following an attack that killed 22 tourists that India blamed on Pakistan, an accusation that Islamabad vehemently denies. During the conflict, Modi announced “Operation Sindoor” as a response to the attack, which heightened tensions and led to retaliation from Pakistan. The short conflict killed more than 70 people in missile and drone attacks, with both sides claiming victory. In June, an Indian naval officer conceded that the country lost several fighter jets to Pakistani fire during their conflict in May and said the losses were a result of “constraints” placed on Indian forces by the government in New Delhi. India and Pakistan traded other slights after Indian cricket players refused to shake hands with their Pakistani counterparts in the final of the Asia Cup, as tensions between the two countries remain heavily strained. After India beat Pakistan at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Sunday by five wickets, the Indian team refused to accept the trophy from Asia Cricket Council (ACC) chief Mohsin Naqvi, who is also the chief of Pakistan’s Cricket Board (PCB) and Pakistan’s interior minister. Simon Doull, a former New Zealand cricketer and broadcaster, announced, citing the ACC, that the Indian team would not be collecting their awards due to the tensions. During the course of the tournament, the Indian team refused to shake hands with the Pakistan team in any of the three matches the two sides played. Naqvi reportedly refused to step down from the presentation ceremony to hand out the award altogether. Indian players Tilak Varma, who won the player-of-the-match award, Abhishek Sharma, who won the player-of-the-tournament award, and Kuldeep Yadav, who won the Most Valuable Player award, turned up to accept their individual awards but did not acknowledge Naqvi. The Pakistani official was also the only person on stage who did not applaud the Indian trio. In a post-match conference, Yadav said he had “never seen” a winning team denied their trophy. But Pakistan’s captain, Salman Agha, accused India’s behaviour during the tournament of being “bad for cricket”. “What they did today, a good team doesn’t do that. Good teams do what we have done. We waited for our medals and took them,” Agha said. Indian cricket board (BCCI) secretary Devajit Saikia announced that the board will lodge a protest against Naqvi in the next meeting of the governing International Cricket Council (ICC) in November. Indian captain Yadav was accused of making a political statement after the first match, while Pakistan opener Sahibzada Farhan and pacer Haris Rauf made political gestures in the second. Follow Al Jazeera English:...