Blair denies seeking to become Trump’s Middle East adviser

 A spokesman for Tony Blair on Sunday denied claims that the former British prime minister wants to become US president Donald Trump’s adviser on the Middle East.
According to The Mail on Sunday newspaper, the former British prime minister met with Mr Trump’s son-in-law and key adviser, Jared Kushner, last week to discuss working for the Republican president.
The weekly tabloid said Mr Blair had met Mr Kushner three times since September.
A spokesman for Mr Blair said he had "made no such ‘pitch’ to be the president‘s Middle East envoy. Neither has he had any discussions about taking such a role or any role working for the new president".
Mr Blair, who led the centre-left Labour Party, was Britain’s prime minister from 1997 to 2007.
He enjoyed close relations with George W Bush, despite being from the opposite side of the political spectrum to the former US president who, like Mr Trump, is a Republican.
Mr Blair won three general elections in Britain but his role in leading the country into the war in Iraq alongside Mr Bush has badly damaged his legacy at home.
After leaving office, Mr Blair was the Middle East Quartet’s envoy until 2015.
The group comprises the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States.
Since leaving that role, Mr Blair has been making more interventions in British politics.
Last month he urged Britons who support the EU to "rise up" and persuade Brexit voters to change their mind about leaving the bloc, in a high-profile speech.
He also slapped down the "utter hypocrisy" of a report last month in The Mail on Sunday’s sister title, the Daily Mail, about the release of a Guantanamo detainee.
Mr Blair wrote an article in The New York Times on Friday where he called for a centrist new coalition that is "popular, not populist", in order for liberal democracy to survive and thrive in the face of rightist populism.

Source: The National