Tony Blair's secret WH summit as Middle East peace envoy

Tony Blair has attended a secret meeting at the White House to discuss working for Donald Trump, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.

The former Prime Minister held talks with Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner on Wednesday with a view to becoming a Middle East peace envoy for Trump. 

This newspaper has learned that Blair and Kushner have met three times in secret since September, including their three-hour summit in the West Wing last week.

If Trump gives Blair the new role, it would mark an astonishing international comeback for the man whose reputation was left in tatters after the Iraq War.

And it would be a major setback to Theresa May’s hopes of forging her own ‘special relationship’ with Trump, especially as former Ukip leader Nigel Farage is already a close confidant of the President.
Blair’s wooing of the Trump family is also likely to re-open speculation about his close friendship with Rupert Murdoch’s ex-wife Wendi Deng, who is a friend of Kushner’s wife, Ivanka, Trump’s daughter.

Blair and Deng were both present at a gathering of media and political powerbrokers in Aspen, Colorado, in September, where Blair first met Kushner to discuss political issues. The event was organised by veteran US talk-show host Charlie Rose, who visited Trump at his New York HQ days after his election triumph. Former Chancellor George Osborne was a speaker at the Aspen event.

Just days after Trump’s election victory in November, Blair and Kushner met again when they dined at the £150-a-head Harry Cipriani restaurant in New York’s Sherry-Netherland Hotel.

Blair has previously been a Middle East envoy for the so-called ‘Quartet’ of the EU, US, Russia and the United Nations – and his knowledge of the region is said to be attractive to the inexperienced Trump administration.

Source: MENA