Tony Blair met the leaders of the Middle East Quartet for the first time last night, mapping his future role and strategy as the international community’s frontman in the conflict between the Palestinians and Israel.

At a meeting in Portugal Mr Blair sat down with Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary-General, Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, and Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister.

After the meeting he told reporters: “The first steps for me are, familiar as I am with this situation, to go [to the Middle East] to listen, to absorb and to reflect . . . and at a later stage put forward proposals.”

Mr Blair faces a mammoth task, even though Washington has limited his role as Quartet chief to rebuilding the shattered Palestinian infrastructure and economy, rather than addressing negotiations between regional players, which will remain Dr Rice’s task.

While the Palestinians wanted his role to be broader, and for him to have the power to steer Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, Israel has made it clear that it is not ready to discuss final-status issues. It prefers to stick to smaller, step-by-step confidence-building measures, such as releasing Palestinian prisoners and helping the economy in the West Bank.

En route to the meeting yesterday Dr Rice reiterated that Mr Blair would not be encroaching on her role as peace negotiator. “His mandate was made clear by the Quartet when we met,” she said. “I think that there is not any larger objective than having a viable Palestinian state.”

White House sources dismissed suggestions of a turf war between Mr Blair and Dr Rice. “Of course people can find voices in the State Department or elsewhere saying other things, but this does not reflect the reality that Tony Blair has, and always has had, a good working relationship with us,” one said.

On the surface the reaction to Mr Blair’s appointment has been positive, with Palestinian and Israeli officials keen to show that they are willing to make progress on the long-stalled peace process. But his credibility in the Arab world has been undermined seriously by the war in Iraq and his backing for Israel’s bombing campaign against Lebanon last summer.

On the ground the situation has rarely been more complicated. The Palestinians are now divided between the Fatah-led administration in the West Bank, run by Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, and the Gaza Strip, which was overtaken by the hardline Islamist movement Hamas five weeks ago. The West and Israel back Mr Abbas.

Yesterday Hamas lashed out again at Mr Abbas, who, a day earlier, had called fresh elections to overrule those won by the Islamists last year. “Abbas has lost all credibility as President of the Palestinian people,” Mahmoud Zahar, a senior leader, said. “Can a man who allies with the enemy against his people remain the President of these people?”

There is a big question mark over whether Mr Blair will even be allowed to talk to Hamas, which Israel and the West view as a terrorist organisation. Thus his main responsibility will not be reconciliation between Israel and the Palestinians but a delicate rebuilding of trust between two Palestinian entities. Questioned about the scale of the challenge, Mr Blair told reporters: “I’m nothing if not an optimist, and I will have need of all that optimism.”

(Additional reporting by Nick Blanford, Beirut, and Rana Sabbagh-Gargour, Amman)

Tough assignment

— The Quartet is made up of the US, the UN, the European Union and Russia

— Mr Blair’s role of Middle East peace envoy was vacant for more than a year before his appointment, after James Wolfensohn, the former head of the World Bank, resigned in frustration

— Other candidates for the role were Bill Clinton and Jacques Chirac

— Israel welcomed Mr Blair’s appointment while Palestinian leaders criticised him, objecting to his perceived closeness to the US.

Source: Times archives

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