PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A U.S. peace plan has propelled former British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the forefront of efforts to end the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. While his legacy in the Middle East is controversial, especially given his role in taking the U.K. to war as part of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, there is one place he is revered as a hero: Kosovo.

As prime minister, Blair — along with then U.S. President Bill Clinton — played a pivotal role in putting together an international coalition that conducted airstrikes in 1999 to end Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown on independence-seeking ethnic Albanians in Kosovo.

Blair’s popularity in Kosovo soared in the aftermath of the war, even leading to the emergence of a new name for boys: Tonibler, the phonetic spel

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