Blair urges US to renew efforts on Middle East crisis
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Your support makes all the difference.Tony Blair has urged the United States to redouble its efforts to solve the Middle East crisis and warned that its stance is fuelling anti-Americanism around the world.
The Government said yesterday that a conference in London on the peace process would go ahead despite Israel's refusal to allow Palestinian delegates to attend. They will take part via a telephone link. In a interview with Reader's Digest magazine, which will circulate in America as well as Britain, Mr Blair said: "So far as the Muslim world is concerned, the perception is we worry about Iraq, but we don't care about the Middle East peace process.
"America is doing what it can, but we've got to redouble our efforts because the best recruiting banner for anti-Americanism is on this issue...
"You've got to engage with the Arab-Muslim world in a more fundamentally long-term way about the fanaticism in parts of the Arab world, about democracy, about inter-faith understanding."
Mr Blair has been anxious to take an initiative on the Middle East, partly to woo Muslim countries to support a tough stance against Iraq.
Amid worsening relations with Israel, he was reluctant to allow the travel ban to wreck next Tuesday's conference on reforms to the Palestinian Authority that are seen as crucial to the peace process. Observers doubt that much progress can be made with the limited involvement of Palestinians. But Mr Blair has managed to salvage his personal project despite scepticism about it in Israel and Washington.
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, will chair the confer-ence, which is expected to be attended by representatives of the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, the US, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. Senior members of the Palestinian Authority will be patched in by phone, while Mr Straw and Mr Blair will meet Palestinian officials living in London. Mr Straw said: "This is an important initiative. The reform agenda matters too much for us to allow it to become stalled. It is vital to the search for peace."
He said the agenda for the conference, including political, judicial, administrative and constitutional reform, was the same as would have been discussed had the Palestinian delegates been allowed to attend.
The Foreign Secretary said: "We will take stock of our next steps after the Israeli elections [on 28 January] and intend to have a further meeting as soon as the Palestinian delegates are allowed to travel. We will help whenever we can to move the process forward and deliver security and justice for Palestinians and Israelis."
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, imposed the travel ban on Palestinian leaders after last Sunday's suicide bombs in Tel Aviv, which killed 22 Israelis. He then snubbed Britain by failing three times to meet its ambassador, Sherard Cowper-Coles, who was bearing a letter from Mr Blair urging him to lift the ban.
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