Update:Blair’s Progress on M.E.
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- NEW BLOG! Bring Back Tony Blair - Nov 2007
- New York Times - on Annapolis Meeting, expected 26th Nov
- Advice to Blair from Washington Institute
Comment at end
25th March, 2008
Merkel & Blair to stage Middle East security talks in June
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and peace envoy Tony Blair will jointly organize a Middle East security conference to be held at the beginning of June in Berlin, the German Foreign Ministry said on Friday.
“The aim of the conference will be to discuss the strengthening of the Palestinian police force and justice apparatus,” the ministry spokeswoman said.
27th November, 2007
START OF ANNAPOLIS MEETING. See - “More in Hope than Expectation”
19th November, 2007
MAJOR MOVEMENT ON MIDDLE EAST?
[Pic: The International Envoy visits a West Bank Refugee Camp]
TODAY’S PROGRESS
4 PROJECTS
SYRIANS & SAUDIS - HOPEFUL TO ATTEND ANNAPOLIS
RELEASE OF HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERS
ISRAEL SHELVES WEST BANK CONSTRUCTION
Israel said today it would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners and halt new settlement building on the West Bank as diplomatic activities gathered speed ahead of a key peace summit next week.
Tony Blair’s efforts in the Middle East have been derided as “hopeless”, “deluded” and “impossible” (I even made a video on this!)
But today progress has surely been made. Not just on the four projects, but in the reported progress on bringing to the Annapolis meeting a week today, Syria and Saudi Arabia, two of the most powerful Arab nations in the region.And today the Israeli government approved the release of 450 Palestinian prisoners and reiterated its pledge to freeze new settlements in the West Bank and dismantle unauthorised settlements.
A senior Israeli official said it was a goodwill gesture ahead of the peace conference.
It is also testament to the high regard in which Mr Blair is held:
The BBC’s Katya Adler in Jerusalem says the projects are not new, but what is different is that Mr Blair has the support of Israel.
In the past, Israel has cited security concerns for blocking business initiatives and for restricting the movement of goods and workers in and around the Palestinian Territories, our (BBC) correspondent says.
Tony Blair said, referring to the four major projects - a sewage treatment plant in Gaza, an industrial park in Jericho, an industrial zone in Hebron and a tourism project:
“It is a strong beginning for what is a critical part of this process, because without hope of prosperity and a rise in living standards and giving people an economic stake in the future… then politics will never succeed,” he told reporters.
“In the end, all these aspects are linked - the political vision, the building of the capacity for Palestinian statehood, the actual facts on the ground - the economic facts of what is happening,” he added.
BLAIR, THE ETERNAL OPTIMIST, HELPS MAINTAIN THE MOMENTUM
Tony Blair today announced “schemes aimed at generating jobs for tens of thousands of Palestinians, revitalising the occupied territories and creating momentum for the peace talks”.
Ground is being prepared for the expected Annapolis, Maryland, USA meeting, due on 26th/27th November. It holds high hopes for the newly revitalised MEPP (Middle East Peace Process). One of the yet unknowns is whether the Saudis and the Syrians will attend. The package of infrastructure and business projects announced today by the Middle East Envoy should be recognised as indicating the sincerity of the international community’s hopes for a settled outcome.
Excerpt from Israel’s Haaretz website:
The projects are “designed to give some sense things could change on the ground,” Blair said in a joint news conference in Ramallah with Fayyad and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner over the weekend.
Excerpt from The Guardian report:
Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed a pledge to negotiate “immediately and continuously” to reach a final peace agreement within a year in a joint declaration to be issued in 10 days at a key summit in the US.With diplomatic activity intensifying in advance of the event in Annapolis - pencilled in for November 26 but billed as a “meeting” rather than a conference - officials from both sides say they are putting the finishing touches to a document that commits them to a two-state solution to the world’s most intractable conflict.
But the draft declaration avoids going into detail on the core issues in the dispute. Israel has rejected any mention of the 1967 borders, seen by the Palestinians and many others as the indispensable basis for agreement. Expectations for success by next November are very low. But signs are multiplying that Syria and Saudi Arabia will both attend, giving wider Arab backing to the US effort.
18th November, 2007
BLAIR TO ANNOUNCE JOBS & INDUSTRY PROJECTS FOR PALESTINIANS
Tomorrow the International Envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair, following his recent donor meetings for fund-raising, is expected to make financial and industrial announcements. As many as 10,000 jobs could be created.
With just a week to go before the on/off Annapolis peace conference Blair hopes this will be seen as an important hands-on commitment of international support for the Palestinian people.
From Reuters, Jerusalem
Middle East envoy Tony Blair plans to announce on Monday projects designed to bolster the Palestinian economy, including one in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Western and Palestinian officials said.
The announcement by the former British prime minister comes a week ahead of a U.S.-sponsored peace conference meant to launch long-stalled talks on Palestinian statehood and bolster President Mahmoud Abbas after Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June.
Western and Palestinian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity on Sunday, said the projects were meant to quickly create jobs and boost economic activity.
Western officials said the decision to include a sewage project in Gaza was part of a new outreach effort to the coastal strip’s 1.5 million residents.
Abbas, whose secular Fatah faction still dominates the occupied West Bank, wants to regain control of Gaza but it is unclear how he will be able to do so. Israel has tightened its economic and military cordon around Gaza since June and has escalated threats to invade the territory in response to Palestinian rocket fire.
“From our point of view, this is a humanitarian question,” Shlomo Dror, spokesman for the Israeli coordinator for the Palestinian territories, said of the Gaza sewage project. Dror said Israel’s only concern was that certain types of metal piping could be used by militants to fashion rockets. Dror said alternative types of piping could be used.
Blair’s West Bank projects will include a trade corridor in the town of Jericho and checkpoint changes to make it easier for tourists to visit Bethlehem and its Christian holy sites.
Construction of a major industrial zone in Hebron is designed to create local jobs, said Mayor Khaled Oseily, adding that Blair promised to find international donors. The projects will be unveiled after Blair’s meeting on Monday with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad and Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak.
Speaking to reporters in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Blair said the projects were “designed to give people a sense that some things can change on the ground”.
Aid agencies have warned that Gaza’s sewage systems were stretched to breaking point. In March, a sewage reservoir burst next to a village in northern Gaza, killing at least four people and injuring 20 in a torrent of putrid water and waste that buried their homes.
Last year the Bush administration decided to fund water and sewage projects in municipalities not controlled by Hamas.
(Reporting by Adam Entous in Jerusalem, Wafa Amr in Ramallah and Haitham Tamimi in Hebron; Writing by Adam Entous; Editing by Richard Williams)
Tags: annapolis, Gaza, Industry, Jobs, middle east, Palestinians, Peace Process, Tony Blair
