- Title: WEST BANK: Quartet envoy Blair meets Abbas and tours holy site in the West Bank
- Date: 6th September 2007
- Summary: (BN10) RAMALLAH, WETS BANK (SEPTEMBER 6, 2007) (REUTERS) QUARTET'S ENVOY TONY BLAIR'S CONVOY ARRIVING AT PALESTINIAN PRESIDENTIAL COMPOUND TONY BLAIR STEPPING OUT OF CAR, GREETING PALESTINIAN CHIEF NEGOTIATOR SAEB EREKAT BLAIR SEATED WITH PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS, BLAIR AND ABBAS SHAKING HANDS CLOSE OF BLAIR VARIOUS OF MEETING
- Embargoed: 21st September 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVAA32RPGB7JOLMD7T4RTZYGSXSQ
- Story Text: Tony Blair, envoy for the Quartet of Middle East negotiators, meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah and tours the holy Nativity Church in Bethlehem during a visit to the region to help lay the groundwork for an upcoming U.S.-sponsored Mideast conference.
Tony Blair, the envoy of the Quartet of Mideast mediators, met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday (September 6).
Blair, the former British prime minister, is on a 10-day visit to the region to meet Palestinian and Israeli leaders.
His plan is to pave the way for a U.S.-sponsored peace conference, scheduled for November in Washington.
After he met Abbas, Blair visited the holy Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, revered by Christians as Jesus's place of birth.
Officials said on Wednesday (September 5) that Blair is developing a plan that would spell out "practical" steps that Israeli, Palestinian and business leaders could gradually take to try to boost peace prospects.
Israel is expected to be asked to take steps including easing travel restrictions in the occupied West Bank, officials said.
Steps for the Palestinian side would focus initially on improving Abbas's hold on security in the West Bank, a key Israeli precondition for removing roadblocks and checkpoints that restrict travel there.
The Quartet of Middle East mediators - the United States, Russia, United Nations and the European Union - gave Blair a limited mandate mainly focused on economic development and building governing institutions in the occupied West Bank.
But Abbas's aides hope the former British prime minister will go further and use his influence to get Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to enter negotiations for a Palestinian state ahead of the November conference.
In addition to bolstering Abbas's security forces, Israeli sources said the plan would seek to expand an amnesty programme for Palestinian militants.
Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip in June but Abbas's secular Fatah faction still holds sway in the West Bank.
Blair would help mobilise support for the Palestinians to build a government-run social safety-net programme to wean Palestinians off Hamas charities, officials said.
A Blair spokesman would neither confirm nor deny that any action plan was being developed.
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