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| Tony Blair to visit Mideast to “revive” Road Map
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LONDON (EJP)--- British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he wants a “revival and re-energizing” of the road map for peace in the Middle East once the Lebanon conflict calms down.
The statement came during a Downing Street news conference, held just before Blair left for a three week holiday,
Next month the prime minister is scheduled to travel to the Middle East for talks with the region’s leaders as well as members of the Quartet of the UN, EU, US and Russia, with the aim of reviving the peace process.
Negotiations with the PA
Blair will be looking to persuade both Israel and the Palestinian Authority to resume negotiations to the point they were before Hamas took over the Palestinian Authority in January.
The prime minister will also be looking to create a cessation of hostilities in Gaza where Hamas has been firing rockets into southern Israel and Israel responding with retaliatory strikes and raids on Gaza.
Lord Levy, Blair’s unofficial Middle East advisor, has been in the region in the last week and held meetings in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and other senior officials. Levy also visited Ramallah where he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
In a statement released by Downing Street last week, Blair said he supports the UN resolution calling for an end to hostilities in Lebanon but said the “Israeli-Palestinian situation as the underlying root cause of this conflict”.
While he did say that the violence in Lebanon had been about the ability of the Lebanese government to be in sole charge of its country, he also said, “We must never lose sight of the fact that the conflict in Lebanon arose out of a desire to exploit the continuing impasse in Palestine.”
Olmert not ready
However, a report in British newspaper on Sunday claims that Blair will be rebuffed. The Observer newspaper maintains that Prime Minister Olmert is not ready at present to talk to the Palestinians.
Olmert is alleged to have said that after this difficult war, Israelis are not ready for new talks with the Palestinians.
Downing Street officials have denied this and said there had been “no change” in Blair’s intention to visit the region next month to push for progress on reviving talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The UK has announced they will be supplying Lebanon with 12.5m UKP (18.3 euros) for reconstruction.
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