What to know about former U.K. leader Tony Blair, tapped by Trump for postwar Gaza role
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LONDON — In President Trump's 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, only one name appears other than his own: Tony Blair.
Blair, as prime minister of the United Kingdom, helped negotiate a 1998 peace deal ending decades of sectarian fighting in Northern Ireland. He later served as a Middle East peace envoy for the international community, and now runs a London think tank.
But the 72-year-old former politician comes with baggage: He's reviled in the U.K. and internationally for his 2003 decision to join President George W. Bush's U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.
That war led to some 200,000 civilian deaths and triggered some of the biggest street protests in modern British history. It was a military quagmire and contributed to a precipitous drop in Blair's approval rating, according to Ipsos polling throughout his decade in power. No other prime minister in modern British history experienced such a steep plunge in popularity.
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