RAMALLAH: The Quartet envoy Tony Blair yesterday said that a new “framework” for Middle East peace talks may emerge in the coming weeks as Israeli and Palestinian leaders visit Washington. “We’re about to get a new framework. I can only speculate right now about what that framework will be. The reason I say people should be more hopeful is that this is a framework that is being worked on at the highest level of the American administration, in the rest of the international community,” Blair told Palestinian journalists in West Bank city of Ramallah.
The former British prime minister said, “I think that within the next five to six weeks, you will have a very clear picture of what the plan is.” Blair added that “the key thing for the next few weeks is to get an agreed strategy and then the key thing for the next few months is to implement it in a way that is credible for people.” Jordan’s King Abdallah said yesterday that Israel, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab nations would sit down together to try to resolve the Middle East conflict under a new “combined approach” currently under discussion with the US.
“What we are discussing today is a combined approach of bringing together Arabs, Europeans and the United States as a team to create the circumstances over the next several months that allow Israelis and Palestinians to sit at the table, but also with Lebanese, Syrians and Arab nations,” Abdallah told a news conference in Berlin.
