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Donald Trump has convened a gathering on the White House with Tony Blair and top officials to debate a brand new postwar plan for Gaza, as Israel prepares to launch one other invasion of the besieged enclave.
The US president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the “large meeting” on Wednesday would give attention to a “comprehensive” plan for Gaza, where catastrophic conditions have sparked international outrage and a UN-backed panel last week declared a famine.
“It’s a really comprehensive plan we’re putting together on the subsequent day [for Gaza] that I believe many persons are going to be — they’re going to see how robust it’s and the way it’s — how well-meaning it’s,” Witkoff told Fox News on Tuesday.
Blair’s attendance on the White House meeting was confirmed by two people accustomed to the matter.
Staff from the previous UK prime minister’s institute for global change previously took part in a project to develop a postwar plan for Gaza that included a proposed “Trump Riviera” within the besieged enclave.
“For him it’s about getting back to a two-state solution,” said one Blair ally, referring to the meeting. “It is totally not and never was about forcible displacement. The entire purpose is to get agreement on “the day after” in an effort to end the war.
Blair’s office declined to comment.
Israel’s foreign minister Gideon Sa’ar was meanwhile set to satisfy US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Wednesday, and the pair were expected to debate developments in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, including efforts towards a ceasefire deal. Israel is concurrently preparing its forces for a serious ground assault in Gaza City.
Witkoff’s announcement of the White House’s efforts to plot a day-after plan got here after Trump this week suggested that the war may very well be over in two to a few weeks and that he had told the Israelis to “get it settled soon”.
“We expect that we’re going to settle this a method or one other, actually before the top of this 12 months,” Witkoff told Fox News.
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 facets of what any deal should include.
Earlier this month, Hamas accepted a proposal for a short lived ceasefire that mediators said was largely much like one recommend by Witkoff in May and previously accepted by Israel, which might free a number 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 fascinated by a deal that brings home all of the hostages in a single go.
Witkoff told Fox Tuesday “that’s president Trump’s official position” as well.
Israeli officials have also insisted that they may go ahead with their plans to take over Gaza City, with the military’s Arabic spokesman saying on Wednesday that the evacuation of town was “inevitable”.
The White House has provided no further details on the Wednesday meeting.
“President Trump has been clear that he wants the war to finish, and he wants peace and prosperity for everybody within the region,” a White House official said.
Trump administration officials in recent weeks pushed back against plans by US allies — including the UK, France, Canada and Australia — to recognise Palestinian statehood on the United Nations General Assembly meeting next month.
Trump earlier this 12 months suggested that the US should take control of Gaza, expel the population, and rebuild the shattered territory right into a Mediterranean “Riviera” — comments that appeared to shock each the members of his own administration and his Israeli counterparts, but which have since been embraced by Israeli ministers.
Additional reporting by Steff Chávez in Washington