Blair: Middle East peace process is a race against time
26 Mar 2008
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.
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.