Blair optimistisch over vredeskansen met Netanjahoe

 

Alleen Nixon kon naar China gaan, werd gezegd. Alleen Begin kon vrede sluiten met Egypte en de Sinai opgeven, en alleen Sharon kon de Gazastrook ontruimen?

 

De gedachte is dat juist een rechtse regering deze stappen kan zetten omdat zij geen felle tegenstand ontmoet, de linkse oppositie is er immers ook voor. Toen Rabin en Barak concessies deden schreeuwde rechts moord, brand en 'verraad'. Zelf aan de macht, werd rechts ook gedwongen tot concessies, onder vooral Amerikaanse druk. Ik geloof niet dat Netanjahoe happig is op een vredesdeal, maar de voornaamste oppositie zou daarbij uit eigen gelederen komen, en uit de religieuze kolonistenbeweging natuurlijk.

 

Wouter

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Last update - 00:08 27/06/2009       
Blair: Netanyahu election could be a blessing
By Haaretz Service and Reuters
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1095913.html

 

 

Mideast envoy Tony Blair said on Friday that said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be in a strong domestic position to deliver concessions for peace, if he was willing to do so.

 

"I hope and believe Prime Minister Netanyahu is sincere about wanting a Palestine state and wanting to help create one. If he is, he could be in a strong position to deliver it," Blair said.

 

Blair, former U.K. prime minister and currently the regional mediator for the Middle East peace Quartet that groups the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the European Union, a deal on a two-state solution in Palestine could be within reach if Israel compromises on issues such as halting settlement expansion.
 
A statement from the Quartet, which met on the sidelines of a G8 foreign ministers' meeting in northern Italy, called for Israel to halt all settlement activities and for Palestinians to combat violent extremism.

 

"There is a virtual consensus across the international community not just as to what needs to happen, but how...which was not the case a couple of years ago," Blair told Reuters.

 

"If Israel were to join that, we could get an agreement and an agreement in my view that protects completely the state of Israel."

 

Direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians could resume soon, Blair said, but the process was at a delicate stage as foreign powers stepped up calls on Jerusalem to ensure a Palestinian state would not be undermined by settlements.

 

In a statement on Friday, G8 ministers urged Israel to halt the expansion of settlements, echoing a recent call from U.S. President Barack Obama after a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington earlier this month.

 

Netanyahu heads a right-leaning coalition that could be fractured if he agreed to a settlement halt.

 

"The advent of the Obama administration has given a new sense of energy and commitment and to a certain extent hope... However, the challenges are still there," Blair said.

 

Before political negotiations on a two-state deal could begin, progress was needed on the ground such as the reopening of the Gaza Strip and the release of an Israeli soldier captured there three years ago by militant group Hamas, Gilad Shalit.

 

Gaza has been under blockade since Hamas seized power there two years ago in fighting with Fatah-led forces.

 

Hamas, shunned by the West for refusing to recognize Israel or to renounce violence, had won an election a year earlier.

 

A statement by the Quartet on Friday called for a halt to all violence and arms trafficking in Gaza and the reopening of all crossing points.

 

Blair said Netanyahu's election this year could prove a blessing, as his hardline government could have the domestic support to make concessions.

 

The world's richest nations earlier on Friday called on Israel to halt construction in West Bank settlements, including that which Jerusalem seeks to pursue to accomodate natural growth.

 

U.S. envoy George Mitchell told a news conference after the Quartet meeting in Italy that the United States hoped Israelis and Palestinians would soon begin "meaningful and productive" peace negotiations.

 

"We believe we are making progress in these efforts and we hope very much to conclude this phase of the discussions and to be able to move into meaningful and productive negotiations in the near future," he said.

 

"We are now trying very hard to seize the very favorably created political atmosphere, of Obama's election to push the peace process forward," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the conference.

 

The Group of Eight powers also deplored violence in Iran after its disputed election on Friday and urged Tehran to settle the crisis soon through democratic dialogue, according to the final draft statement seen by Reuters.

 

"We deplore post-electoral violence which led to the loss of lives of Iranian civilians and urge Iran to respect fundamental human rights including freedom of expression...," G8 foreign ministers said in the statement.

 

On the Middle East, the G8 called on all parties to "re-enter direct negotiations on all standing issues consistent with the roadmap" and it called for a freeze in Jewish settlement construction on the occupied West Bank.

 

"We also call on both parties to fulfil their obligations under the road map, including a freeze in settlement activity (as well as their 'natural growth') and an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism," the statement read.

 

"We call on all parties to re-enter direct negotiations on all standing issues consistent with the road map, the relevant UNSC resolutions and the Madrid principles..."