Blair seeks support for Abbas in ME peace initiative
Middle East Desk Report

RAMALLAH (West Bank)—Prime Minister Tony Blair has called for an initiative to jumpstart the dormant Middle East peace process as he offered support for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas over his controversial call for early elections.
“It is important for us... I think for the whole of the international community, to support people who want a genuine two-state solution — a state of Israel and a state of Palestinians living side by side in peace,” Blair told a joint media conference with Abbas in Ramallah on Monday.
“I hope therefore that we will be in a position over these coming weeks to put together an initiative that allows us both to give that support, in particular for reconstruction and development, and to alleviate the suffering and plight of the Palestinian people,” Blair said.
“But also crucially that gives us a political framework within which we can move forward on that two-state solution.” Abbas said he was ready to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for “serious” talks on the peace process that has been stalled for about six years since the eruption of the Palestinian intifada in 2000.
Blair reiterated his support for Abbas’s high-stakes call on Saturday for early presidential and parliamentary elections, a move that has been rejected by the ruling Hamas movement and that sparked two days of internecine violence.
“I believe that the next few weeks... are going to be a critical time,” he said. A senior Palestinian offical told AFP that the initiative announced by Blair would be worked out in coordination with the United States and would be unveiled by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her expected visit to the region early next year.
“It will be an important initiative that will (also) be worked out in coordination with certain countries in the region,” the official said on condition of anonymity. Abbas defended his election call but said he was also ready to return to collapsed talks on efforts to form a unity government with Hamas.
“There is nothing from our point of view that prohibits this... we believe in democracy. If this is the case, why can’t we go back to the people... to see if they still have confidence in those people whom they elected?” Abbas was elected president in January 2005 following the death of the charismatic Yasser Arafat but has been at loggerheads with Hamas since it swept to power after trouncing his Fatah party in a parliamentary election this year.
Abbas described the situation as a “grave internal crisis” following clashes between rival supporters of Fatah and Hamas that have killed four people in two days. And he called on the feuding factions to abide by a fragile two-day truce agreed late Sunday.
“I trust that everyone will shoulder their responsibilities to maintain the security and safety of the Palestinian people and to implement the principle of one authority, one weapon and one law,” he said.
The Palestinian president called on Blair to work toward ending a Western aid freeze imposed after Hamas, considered a terrorist organization by the West, formed a cabinet in March. The freeze has plunged the Palestinian administration into its worst-ever economic crisis.
“We insisted to the prime minister on the need to work to end the economic siege, to reopen crossings, to free Palestinian prisoners including ministers, lawmakers and officials, and to end the expansion of settlements and the wall,” Abbas said, referring to Israel’s separation barrier in theWest Bank.
Blair was due to meet with Olmert later Monday as part of a regional tour that has already taken him to Turkey, Egypt and Iraq.