Israeli has a famously tetchy air-space defence system

Israeli jets nearly attack Blair

Israeli jets nearly attack Blair

Israeli jets were scrambled into an attack formation to intercept a plane carrying former prime minister Tony Blair, it has been revealed.

The incident occurred when Mr Blair was en route to Israel from a World Economic Forum in Egypt on Wednesday.

Their response followed a failure of Mr Blair’s plane to identify itself to the authorities. Once the fighter jets adopted an attack position aircrew used radio to explain who they were upon which the jets returned to base.

A Blair spokesman said: “Mr Blair was one of a number of delegates on a flight back from the World Economic Forum in Sharm El Sheikh.

“We were not aware of any problem at the time, and have not been notified of any issue with the flight.”

Mr Blair was travelling in his capacity as Middle East peace envoy for the Quartet, which consists of the US, Russia, European Union and United Nations.