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Former British prime minister and Quartet's Middle East envoy Tony Blair. (Reuters)
Last update - 07:20 26/03/2008
Blair: Middle East peace process is a race against time
By News Agencies
Tags: Annapolis conference 

Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Tuesday warned stakeholders in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that they were facing "a race against time."

"It is possible to get this resolved, but we need to be aware that we are racing against time now," the envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators - The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - told a European Parliament panel in Brussels.

Blair set a planned mid-May visit to Israel by U.S. President George W. Bush as the next pointer in the Middle East peace process timeline.
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By then, he said, Israelis, Palestinians and the international community need to clearly show that "we are in a different and better position than the position we are in today."

"This is decision-making time as to whether people are serious about moving the process forward or not," he added.

He said peace was possible because both Israelis and Palestinians want to live side by side in peace. However, he added that while the each side wants a two-state solution, neither believes it is going to get it. "Israelis see Palestinians as unable to combat terrorism and create security, which in turn leads Israel to maintain its checkpoints and restrict access for Palestinians," he said.

Blair also called for a "different and better" strategy for Gaza, saying that the international community must rethink its strategy toward the Hamas-ruled coastal strip.

The former prime minister added that action must be taken to get more goods and food into Gaza to ease the humanitarian crisis there, and added that the present strategy in Gaza is not working. He called for a new strategy that isolates the extremists and helps the people.

Some parliamentarians spoke out against the continuing isolation of Hamas, with whom the EU and the U.S. refuse to negotiate because it has not renounced violence and recognized Israel.

"The politics of isolating Hamas has not brought any benefits. You cannot make arrangements with just one part of the other side," said Spanish lawmaker Josep Borrell, former president of the European Parliament who now presides over the assembly's development committee.

"Israel has to show it really believes the Palestinian state is viable, and everything they do shows that they don't believe it," he said.

Meanwhile Tuesday, Palestinians and Israelis called on the international community to step up its support in efforts to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace.

In separate speeches to the United Nations Security Council, the Palestinian UN observer Riyad Mansour and Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman said their leaders' agreement last November to reach a peace settlement by the end of the year needs greater backing from the international community if it is to work.

Gillerman said suspending the ongoing talks between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would only "play into the hands of extremists who want to see our failure."

"Israel knows it cannot accomplish this alone," he said. "It needs the support of like-minded moderate leaders in the region that understand the threat posed by the extremists, not just to us but to them and to the world, and are willing to do what it takes."

Gillerman called on other nations to demonstrate collective support for the negotiations toward a lasting peace for the region. "This is the mandate of the international community. This is its calling. This is its duty," he emphasized. "This collective resolve must be shown first and foremost by this council."

The U.S.-sponsored conference in Annapolis, Maryland, last November drew 44 nations, including Israel's neighboring Arab states whose support is considered vital to any peace agreement. A joint understanding between the Israelis and Palestinians, in doubt until the last minute, was salvaged and Abbas and Olmert reiterated their desire to reach a peace settlement by the end of next year.

Mansour said a follow-up conference in Moscow, possibly in June, is needed to revive peace efforts.

Until then, he said, a collective effort is needed from the Security Council, from the Quartet and from all those who attended the Annapolis conference to revive the peace process.

"It's in a very critical situation," he said.


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      1.   Phony Blair,too little,too late! 20:19  |  lakshmi 25/03/08
      2.   Too late Tony - Hamas already has Gaza in case your blind 20:22  |  Avi 25/03/08
      3.   GEE NOTHING NEW! 20:29  |  EREZ 25/03/08
      4.   Is Blair so scared of the Zionists? 20:42  |  Dovy 25/03/08
      5.   Gaza is an extension of Africa, so what can you expect? 20:44  |  Jason 25/03/08
      6.   Race against time? The clock is smashed. 20:52  |  Proud Israeli 25/03/08
      7.   Anti-Israel propaganda and reality. 20:55  |  Jean Van Daem 25/03/08
      8.   Haaretz is it too much to ask? 21:07  |  H 25/03/08
      9.   Mercy on Hamas is cruelty to Israel 21:09  |  Israel 25/03/08
      10.   Let`s stop the BS already 21:26  |  Sam 25/03/08
      11.   "Time is not on Israel`s side" 21:32  |  TimothyL 25/03/08
      12.   HE DOESN`T GET IT 21:32  |  E. Levy 25/03/08
      13.   Blair is a neutered puppy 21:38  |  gearoid 25/03/08
      14.   Sit in Bush`s lap & wag your tail .. 21:53  |  Joseph 25/03/08
      15.   A race against increasing extremism on both sides 21:53  |  Milk and Honey 25/03/08
      16.   extremists and the people 21:59  |  ron 25/03/08
      17.   TIME IS ON ISRAEL`S SIDE 22:02  |  Yishai Kohen 25/03/08
      18.   #10 Sam 22:24  |  Cool B 25/03/08
      19.   To Proud Israeli: I Would Go Further 22:32  |  Dave Levy 25/03/08
      20.   A Prayer for the Nation of Israel 22:36  |  Rozz 25/03/08
      21.   blair is an idiot dressed up in saville row suit! 22:41  |  v hardman 25/03/08
      22.   Race against time: you mean before Iran sets off nukes? 22:45  |  Avi 25/03/08
      23.   once Blairs friend Bush goes Blair will follow so he has 6 months 23:00  |  zionist forever 25/03/08
      24.   7 23:12  |  zionist forever 25/03/08
      25.   Blair` speech 23:13  |  Sam 25/03/08
      26.   Blair is an idiot 23:14  |  Gee 25/03/08
      27.   Too bad he messed it up along with Bush 23:26  |  Secular 25/03/08
      28.   Peace, real peace, will immediatley follow 23:31  |  Scharker Yid 25/03/08
      29.   #17 Do you really think so? I don`t. 00:12  |  mary 26/03/08
      30.   Self Declared Holocaust 00:42  |  Robin 26/03/08
      31.   If you think Nasrallah is a problem wait for Muqtada al-Sadr 00:45  |  observer 26/03/08
      32.   Big Words 00:57  |  Mark Lincoln 26/03/08
      33.   Sure Yishai, with a 50% Palestinian Voting Pop. 01:34  |  Mark of Lewiston 26/03/08
      34.   Blair is not an idiot 01:34  |  rich 26/03/08
      35.   Cool B- Israel isn`t going away. 01:43  |  Sam 26/03/08
      36.   BEFORE THE YEAR 2020 01:55  |  indrajaya 26/03/08
      37.   Hamas has got the Rockets+Women shields-now they need food&money 01:56  |  Alan 26/03/08
      38.   Thanks Rozz and your great fellow Christians and G-d bless 01:58  |  Alan 26/03/08
      39.   The ME Theatre! ..... 02:04  |  Rozz 26/03/08
      40.   some jews or perhaps majority deny 02:32  |  bozhidar bob balkas; 26/03/08
      41.   Money Talks 02:38  |  DoubleClick 26/03/08
      42.   Hamas 02:42  |  john Takami Morita 26/03/08
      43.   NO to Blair 02:50  |  Brod 26/03/08
      44.   ONLY SOLUTION: GAZA UNDER EGYPT; PARTS OF W.BANK LINKED TO JORDAN 03:07  |  G. Marcus 26/03/08
      45.   Blair: An Iranian Agent? 03:29  |  Jeff 26/03/08
      46.   MORE BLAIR CRAP 03:32  |  Kol Haam 26/03/08
      47.   blair is another not so funny joke 03:36  |  thought he left 26/03/08
      48.   HE ENJOY HIS OWN TALK 04:28  |  indrajaya 26/03/08
      49.   A new strategy that isolates the extremists and helps the people. 05:55  |  Fortuna Benmayor 26/03/08
      50.   Sounds like... 06:03  |  Wallace 26/03/08
      51.   Mr. Blair goes to Jerusalem. 06:39  |  sandra chitayat 26/03/08
      52.   Yet Another Brit Barking. For A Little God Foresaken Island 06:43  |  Eli 26/03/08
      53.   G. Marcus from Israel. 07:07  |  sandra chitayat 26/03/08
      54.   The truth is that PEACE is imminent 07:13  |  The Archives 26/03/08
      55.   # 31, RICH 07:42  |  indrajaya 26/03/08
      56.   Complicity. 08:06  |  Jean Van Daem 26/03/08
      57.   religion world is an lie above another lie 08:09  |  Di 26/03/08
      58.   Bush and blair have to face reality 08:16  |  Di Wang 26/03/08
      59.   #40 Wallace asks some dumb ol` questions... 08:18  |  Johnboy 26/03/08
      60.   Borell, acuerdate de Euzkadi! 08:20  |  Yisrael Hazak 26/03/08
      61.   #31 dear rich how many british businesses folded in the last 60 y 08:32  |  v hardman 26/03/08
      62.   Mr Blair.(Try prevention not cure). 09:52  |  David Nigel Braham 26/03/08
      63.   Dear Israel, do you really wanna die......????? 10:11  |  Swiss (Dino) 26/03/08
      64.   Blair thinks he is somehow uniquely qualified for the job:FAILURE 10:19  |  Pavel 26/03/08
      65.   No 24 Gee 10:35  |  alan 26/03/08
      66.   #59 dino the swiss dunce postulates again 10:46  |  v hardman 26/03/08
      67.   Progress 10:47  |  Joseph 26/03/08
      68.   #59, Swiss (Dino) - No peace 10:58  |  Anton 26/03/08
      69.   #65, v.hardman 11:02  |  Anton 26/03/08
      70.   STOP the middle east peace process! 11:02  |  kal