As Elections Loom, Blair Under Pressure to Renew U.S. Interest in Mideast Peace
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LONDON – Prime Minister Blair, flying to Washington yesterday for talks with President Bush, said the international community must make peace in the Middle East its highest priority.
Mr. Blair has publicly declared that he is seeking a renewed American commitment to the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and the death of Palestinian Arab leader Yasser Arafat yesterday has created what many see as an opportunity for fresh efforts.” That goal of a viable Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel is one that we must continue to work tirelessly to achieve,” Mr. Blair said, reacting to Arafat’s death.
“Peace in the Middle East must be the international community’s highest priority. We will do whatever we can, working with the U.S. and the E.U., to help the parties reach a fair and durable settlement,” he said in London.
Mr. Blair left yesterday aboard a chartered British Airways jet for two days of meetings, including Mr. Bush’s first with a foreign leader since his reelection last week.
Briefing reporters during the flight, Mr. Blair’s official spokesman said one of Britain’s goals was to revive the stalled “road map” peace plan.
“It’s important that we get the strategy right and then engage the players in such a way that they do not feel that we are imposing something on them, that they do not feel we are saying, ‘Take it or leave it,’ ” he said on condition of anonymity.
Mr. Blair is Mr. Bush’s closest overseas ally and loyally supported and sent troops for the American-led war in Iraq in the face of widespread opposition in European capitals and at home. Their friendship is unpopular among lawmakers in the governing Labour Party and a vast section of the British public. Many believe the prime minister doggedly follows Mr. Bush’s lead without exerting any real influence.
With British general elections expected next year, and Labour members still criticizing the war, Mr. Blair needs to prove that his close alliance with Mr. Bush bears fruit. Many British lawmakers expect Mr. Bush to reward Mr. Blair’s loyalty with a renewed commitment to the Mideast peace process.
Mr. Blair said yesterday that “the relationship between Britain and the U.S. is fantastically important.”
“You know, I think there always is and always should be a situation in which the British prime minister and the American president get on well together. I regard it as part of my job,” Mr. Blair said in an interview with GMTV, a morning news program.
Mr. Bush’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol on global warming; the incarceration of detainees at the American military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and what some regard as heavy-handed American military tactics in Iraq have contributed to the president’s unpopularity in Britain.