Brussels, 20/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - The international quartet on the Middle East (the European Union, United States, Russia and the UN) met in Lisbon, Portugal, on 19 July. The meeting was attended by the former UK prime minister Tony Blair, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Portuguese Foreign Minister (and current President of the Council of the EU) Luis Amado, and EU High Representative for the CFSP Javier Solana. On 18 July, Solana was visiting the region, the same day as Tony Blair inaugurated his mission as Quartet Special Envoy for the Middle East. Solana held meetings with Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon read out a Quartet statement at the final press conference. It was decided in Lisbon to change the title of Tony Blair's position from 'Middle East envoy' to 'Quartet representative'. All Middle East countries were urged to work closely with Tony Blair (who was appointed on 27 June 2007 with the mission of mobilising international aid for the Palestinian Authority and helping establish a Palestinian state.)
Attention in Lisbon focussed on the role Tony Blair will play in the attempts to relaunch the peace process in the current difficult situation (but where there have been increasing signs recently of good intent, aiming mainly at backing up Mahmoud Abbas' power against Hamas.) Discussions covered the content of Tony Blair's mission. In an open letter published earlier this month (see details in EUROPE 9464), ten EU Mediterranean countries call for a change of approach and an extension of Blair's mandate to be able to facilitate negotiations among Israelis and Palestinians to redefine objectives for the final status of the Palestinian Territories. The Quartet welcomed President George W. Bush's call for an international meeting on the Middle East, and expressed support for Salam Fayyad's Palestinian government. It also welcomed the 'resumption of bilateral talks between Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas … and … encouraged continued bilateral dialogue and further cooperation, including on the political horizon as the necessary framework to move forward.' The Quartet agreed to meet again in September to assess Tony Blair's first moves and discuss follow-up.
After the Lisbon meeting, Blair said he was very happy with his job as the Quartet's representative and would travel to the Middle East next week, where he said he planned to 'listen, to absorb and to reflect' before putting forward any proposals. He said: 'There is a sense that we can regain momentum. That is the crucial thing.' He told reporters that he was not the first Western leader who tried to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and would take the approach of not giving the Palestinians false hopes.
At the final press conference, Condoleezza Rice said the Palestinians needed to know that there is a tangible possibility of creating a Palestinian state and the Quartet had a fundamental role to play in that. She said there had been many attempts to find a two state solution but there were now people who were totally committed to it, adding that a little luck and optimism would also be required.
Tony Blair's name has been added to a long list of mediators, including three from the European Union alone - Javier Solana and Marc Otte, not to mention Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Louis Michel, who often speak on the issue on behalf of the EU. Too many interlocutors for the same passivity, commented an Arab diplomat. The secretary general of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, said that in order to be useful, Tony Blair's mandate should go hand in hand with political action and while the Quartet was an important group, it had done nothing to get the peace process moving or give peace a chance. Tony Blair should put the same focus on application of the Israeli commitments as on the roadmap responsibilities drawn up by the Quartet in 2003 but which have remained on the back burner.
Egypt, one of the Arab sponsors of the Middle East peace process, warned the Quartet about failure of its talks. Egyptian Foreign Minister Amhad Aboul Gheit, visiting Lisbon on 18 July, said such failure would jeopardise everything that people had been trying to build in recent years. He added that relaunching the Middle East Peace Process was urgently needed.
The Gulf Cooperation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a member, and which launched a recent peace plan involving the recognition of Israel, called on the United States on Wednesday to play a balanced role. President Mahmoud Abbas announced on Wednesday that he was planning to call on the PLO to organise early general elections but Hamas had rejected the idea. The Syrian president, Bachar al-Assad, who started his second term of office on Tuesday, called on Israel to solemnly proclaim a desire for peace and guarantee the return of the Golan Heights. He said he didn't want secret talks but called on Israel's leaders to officially and clearly announce their desire for peace. (fb)