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Palestinian PM Qurei, Hamas Lash Out at Blair Conference
(AFP/Yahoo)- British Prime Minister Blair's Middle East peace quest was severely jolted when his counterpart in the West Bank took umbrage at suggestions that the Palestinians needed to be groomed for statehood. The hardline Hamas movement, regarded by Blair's government as a terrorist organization, also urged the PA to steer clear of a March conference in London focusing on Palestinian political and economic reforms. Blair had received backing for the conference during his trip to the West Bank on Wednesday from new PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas. But Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurei remarked: "We have heard what he (Blair) said in Israel and then here (Ramallah) about his wish to host a conference to groom the Palestinians to take part in the peace process....We reject these unacceptable declarations for we are already groomed and we have the necessary means and expertise to negotiate. We need an international peace conference and not a simple meeting" on Palestinian reforms. "It is the Israelis who need to be educated on the subject of peace....We don't need someone from Oxford or Cambridge when we already have the desire for peace," he added.