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Donald Trump has convened a meeting at the White House with Tony Blair and top officials to discuss a new postwar plan for Gaza, as Israel prepares to launch another invasion of the besieged enclave.
The US presidentโs special envoy Steve Witkoff said the โlarge meetingโ on Wednesday would focus on a โcomprehensiveโ plan for Gaza, where catastrophic conditions have sparked international outrage and a UN-backed panel last week declared a famine.
โItโs a very comprehensive plan weโre putting together on the next day [for Gaza] that I think many people are going to be โ theyโre going to see how robust it is and how itโs โ how well-meaning it is,โ Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday.
Blairโs attendance at the White House meeting was confirmed by two people familiar with the matter.
Staff from the former UK prime ministerโs institute for global change previously took part in a project to develop a postwar plan for Gaza that included a proposed โTrump Rivieraโ in the besieged enclave.
โFor him itโs about getting back to a two-state solution,โ said one Blair ally, referring to the meeting. โIt is absolutely not and never was about forcible displacement. The whole purpose is to get agreement on โthe day afterโ in order to end the war.
Blairโs office declined to comment.
Israelโs foreign minister Gideon Saโar also met US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday. They discussed Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and Iran, according to a readout from the state department.
Witkoffโs announcement of the White Houseโs efforts to devise a day-after plan came after Trump this week suggested that the war could be over in two to three weeks and that he had told the Israelis to โget it settled soonโ.
โWe think that weโre going to settle this one way or another, certainly before the end of this year,โ Witkoff told Fox News.
Israel is preparing its forces for a major ground assault in Gaza City.
Previous efforts by the US, Egypt and Qatar to mediate an end to the fighting have repeatedly stalled, with Israel and Hamas at odds over fundamental aspects of what any deal should include.
Earlier this month, Hamas accepted a proposal for a temporary ceasefire that mediators said was largely similar to one put forward by Witkoff in May and previously accepted by Israel, which would free some of the remaining hostages in exchange for a 60-day truce.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has in recent weeks insisted that Israel is now only interested in a deal that brings home all the hostages in one go.
Witkoff told Fox Tuesday โthatโs president Trumpโs official positionโ as well.
Israeli officials have also insisted that they will go ahead with their plans to take over Gaza City, with the militaryโs Arabic spokesman saying on Wednesday that the evacuation of the city was โinevitableโ.
The White House has provided no further details on the Wednesday meeting.
โPresident Trump has been clear that he wants the war to end, and he wants peace and prosperity for everyone in the region,โ a White House official said.
Trump administration officials in recent weeks pushed back against plans by US allies โ including the UK, France, Canada and Australia โ to recognise Palestinian statehood at the United Nations General Assembly meeting next month.
Trump earlier this year suggested that the US should take control of Gaza, expel the population, and rebuild the shattered territory into a Mediterranean โRivieraโ โ comments that appeared to shock both the members of his own administration and his Israeli counterparts, but which have since been embraced by Israeli ministers.
Additional reporting by Steff Chรกvez in Washington
