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Last update - 21:22 25/03/2008             

Blair: Middle East peace is a race against time    
   
By News Agencies    
   
Tags: Annapolis conference     

BRUSSELS, Belgium - Former British prime minister Tony Blair on Tuesday warned stakeholders in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process that they were facing "a race against time."

"It is possible to get this resolved, but we need to be aware that we are racing against time now," the envoy for the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators - The United Nations, the United States, the European Union and Russia - told a European Parliament panel in Brussels.

Blair set a planned mid-May visit to Israel by U.S. President George W. Bush as the next pointer in the Middle East peace process timeline.
   
By then, he said, Israelis, Palestinians and the international community need to clearly show that "we are in a different and better position than the position we are in today."

"This is decision-making time as to whether people are serious about moving the process forward or not," he added.

He said peace was possible because both Israelis and Palestinians want to live side by side in peace. However, he added that while each side wants a two-state solution, neither believes it is going to get it. "Israelis see Palestinians as unable to combat terrorism and create security, which in turn leads Israel to maintain its checkpoints and restrict access for Palestinians," he said.

Blair also called for a "different and better" strategy for Gaza, saying that the international community must rethink its strategy toward the Hamas-ruled coastal strip.

The former prime minister added that action must be taken to get more goods and food into Gaza to ease the humanitarian crisis there, and added that the present strategy in Gaza is not working. He called for a new strategy that isolates the extremists and helps the people.

Some parliamentarians spoke out against the continuing isolation of Hamas, with whom the EU and the U.S. refuse to negotiate because it has not renounced violence and recognized Israel...................................