[New York Times] Isabel Kershner - Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, on Monday plunged into his new role as special envoy of the quartet of Middle East peacemakers. He met with Jordan's foreign minister in Amman, and then proceeded to Jerusalem to meet with Israeli leaders. His mandate is to help build PA institutions and to promote the development of the Palestinian economy, with the role of mediator generally reserved for the Americans. Mark Regev, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the importance of institution building on the Palestinian side should not be underestimated. "That has often been the Achilles' heel of the process," he said, noting that Abbas' "failure to implement his election promise of imposing 'one authority, one law and one gun' in the Palestinian Authority has been a source of many of the problems."
2007-07-24 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive