The International Quartet, made up of the United States, the European Union, Russia, and the United Nations, is expected to appoint Tony Blair as its special Ambassador to the Middle East on Wednesday. Blair will step down on Wednesday from his current position as the Prime Minister of Britain. He will be replaced by his Finance Minister, Gordon Brown.

Some analysts criticized the Quartet’s appointment, saying that Blair lacks acceptance in the Arab world due to his support for the United States-led war in Iraq. The former Quartet Ambassador, James Wolfensohn, was one of the officials responsible for engineering the expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria in 2005.