Is Blair the right choice?

The emergence of Tony Blair as a potential Gaza interim consul and member of Donald Trump's "board of peace" marks his latest reinvention as a would-be power broker in the Middle East.

- Peter Beaumont

As an architect of the disastrous invasion of Iraq, a promoter of a simplistic interpretation of Islamist extremism as the world's main security problem and a figure who has been accused of intertwining his own business interests with his political advocacy, he is in some ways a perfect fit for the new Trump era.

What is less clear is what the former prime minister can meaningfully bring to one of the world's most intractable problems, outside overarching self-belief.

Blair's role as an architect of the Good Friday agreement ending the Troubles in Northern Ireland is much mentioned, but his track record in the Middle East is far more controversial.

His years in Jerusalem working for the Quartet on the Middle East - representing the UN, EU, US and Russia - were viewed at best as a moderate success by diplomats while Palestinians saw him as an impediment to their efforts to advance statehood.

He was appointed with the backing of the then US president, George Bush, and the former UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, but the EU and Russia were less enthusiastic. Blair's role from the beginning was somewhat toothless, focused largely on economic development, and Palestinian officials complained he was more sympathetic to Israel.