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Mixed reactions to Blair as envoy

"It will be a glorious waste of time. The only peace process with a chance of success is one that comes from the people involved, with all due respect [to] Tony Blair and his abilities."

Uri Dromi, Israeli Democracy Institute

British Prime Minister Tony Blair is keen to become the international community's Middle East envoy after leaving office next Wednesday and has the support of the US, Israel and the Palestinian Fatah leadership.

However, a formal job offer depends on the agreement of the international quartet attempting to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian peace process: the US, Europe, the UN and Russia.

The greatest obstacle is Moscow, which has had an increasingly combative relationship with the Blair government, particularly over the poisoning in London of the Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko.

The administration of US President George W. Bush has been the driving force behind the Blair candidacy but many Middle East observers see the job as a poisoned chalice. Since the last quartet envoy, James Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president, resigned in April last year, conditions in the Palestinian territories have worsened markedly.

Nevertheless, both Israel and Palestinians loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said they would welcome Blair as a special envoy.

Zvi Heifetz, Israel's ambassador to London, supports the idea.

"It's an excellent idea. There is no better person for this job. He has been dealing with the Middle East for 10 years, and he has been objective and balanced," Heifetz said.

Manuel Hassassian, the London representative of the Palestinian Liberation Organization, of which Abbas is chairman, said: "It would be worthwhile to see what Mr Blair could do, especially at critical times like this with a rift between Hamas and Fatah."

Hassassian, who stressed that he was expressing a personal opinion, said: "I think Mr Blair as a prime minister to a certain degree tied in his policies to those of the United States. Now he could play a more independent role."

However, Rosemary Hollis of the Royal Institute of International Affairs disagreed.

"It's a most unfortunate idea. It implies that Tony Blair still has no notion of the repercussions of British intervention in the Middle East. It will do Mahmoud Abbas no good and could harm him. Tony Blair will be associated with an approach that wants a Palestinian state that is no more than useful to the Israelis and ends up enabling and sustaining the occupation," she said.

A former British ambassador in the Middle East was also skeptical about the plan.

"I think it will grind Blair down and he will get tired of hanging around in poky offices and not being able to move things forward. It can be very labour intensive. I would have thought this is below his pay grade," the former ambassador said.

Uri Dromi, of the Israeli Democracy Institute, said: "It will be a glorious waste of time. The only peace process with a chance of success is one that comes from the people involved, with all due respect [to] Tony Blair and his abilities."
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