White House: Blair did offer to help Trump in Middle East
US SECRETARY of State Rex Tillerson has confirmed to the British Government that Tony Blair has offered to help Donald Trump win a Middle East peace deal.
Mr Tillerson gave details of Mr Blair’s involvement after The Mail on Sunday revealed last week he had visited the White House 11 days ago to discuss the issue with the President’s son-inlaw Jared Kushner.
Mr Kushner has been tasked by Mr Trump with achieving the ‘ultimate deal’ – peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
News of Mr Blair’s White House talks came as a total surprise to Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Britain’s Ambassador in Washington, Kim Darroch. Embarrassed British officials said the first they knew about Mr Blair’s visit was when they read it in this newspaper. Some expressed surprise that Mr Blair had not told them in advance.
American State Department and White House officials told Downing Street and the Foreign Office that this newspaper’s account was accurate: Mr Blair had offered to help Mr Kushner’s Middle East peace effort – and the Trump administration had ‘taken his approach seriously’.
Shortly after meeting Mr Kushner for three hours in the White House West Wing on March 1, Mr Blair jetted to Israel for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s team. Kushner, 36, has close family ties with Netanyahu. He first met the Israeli leader as a child when Netanyahu visited Kushner’s father, a Jewish US property magnate. Kushner junior, who is married to Mr Trump’s daughter Ivanka, 35, introduced Trump to Netanyahu and is credited with persuading the US President to take a much more pro-Israeli stance.
One official said: ‘The basis of Mr Blair’s approach was that he has years of experience of Middle East politics and in particular has much better Arab contacts than anyone in the White House.’
After leaving No 10 in 2007, Mr Blair was Middle East peace envoy, appointed by the EU, Russia, US and United Nations.
A senior diplomatic source said: ‘Blair has offered to help Kushner and the White House and they are very interested. They think his general diplomatic and Middle East background could be useful.’