Former British Prime Minister Anthony Blair
Sees Possibilities In Mideast Mission
By
Alastair Macdonald
Date : 24th July 2007
RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Tony Blair
said on Tuesday there was a new "moment of opportunity" in the Middle
East but cautioned in his first visit as an international envoy against
expecting any peace breakthrough soon.
The Quartet of peace brokers -- the United States, European
Union, United Nations
and Russia --
has asked the British former prime minister to present in September an
initial plan for building ruling institutions for a future Palestinian
state.
Blair, in his first public remarks since starting his
mission
on Monday, said he came "to listen and to learn and to reflect" in
preliminary talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders.
"I think there is a
sense of possibility at the moment. I
think this is a moment of opportunity," he told reporters after meeting
Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who said Blair was "uniquely
positioned to help us move forward."
Earlier, in remarks after talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres,
Blair said translating possibilities "into something" would require
work and thought "over time."
Blair also met Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction lost
control of Gaza to Hamas
Islamists in fighting last month, a development that has led Israel and
the West to redouble their efforts to bolster the moderate leader.
Blair ends his day with a private meeting with Israeli
Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert on Tuesday before flying out on Wednesday.
Diplomats say Blair's limited mandate could expand later
into
a more direct peacemaking role, an idea backed by Abbas's aides. Many
Israeli officials are cool to the prospect.
"The mandate of Prime Minister Blair is motivated and
generated by the objectives and not by the verbal mandate that he's
given," said Abbas aide Saeb Erekat, in an apparent allusion to the
goals of peace and Palestinian statehood.
POLITICAL MANDATE
Peres, a Nobel Peace laureate, hinted at a political
mandate
for the 54-year-old Blair, credited with successful peacemaking in
Northern Ireland during his decade in charge in London.
"He has on the one hand to see what can be done to
advance the
political matter and the economic affairs and to permit the
Palestinians to build political institutions," said Peres, whose post
is largely ceremonial.
Peres, 83, said Blair faced "one of the most responsible
and
demanding tasks of his career" and there was "a real chance for his
success."
"I think there is a serious window of opportunity to
advance
peace," Peres said. "I don't know the duration of this opportunity. I'm
afraid it's not too long."
Hamas, which has spurned international demands to
recognize
Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace agreements, has said
Blair must deal with the Islamic movement and avoid "double standards."
Blair shunned the group during the visit.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, another Abbas aide, said the
Palestinians
hoped to take advantage of Blair's personal relationship with U.S. and
Israeli leaders.
"If that is going to help our political horizon, that
would be
good," Abu Rdainah said.
Blair was due to wrap up the visit to Israel and the West
Bank
on Wednesday and then travel to Bahrain and
the United Arab
Emirates. He plans to return to the region for the first half of
September, before a Quartet meeting followed by a Middle East
conference organized by U.S. President George
W. Bush.
(Additional reporting by Adam Entous, Jeffrey Heller and
Allyn
Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem;
Wafa Amr in Ramallah)
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