Tony Blair stepping down as Middle East envoy

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is stepping down as the Quartet representative in the Middle East, the group said on Wednesday, after eight years of struggling to make progress in peacemaking between Israel and the Palestinians.

Officials close to the Quartet — the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia — said Blair, 62, will continue to play an informal role in trying to forge a two-state solution between the Palestinians and Israel.

A Quartet statement said Blair "plans to step aside" and expressed appreciation for what it called his "unwavering commitment to the cause of Israeli-Palestinian peace" and efforts to improve the Palestinian economy.

He tried to pull together the strands of diplomacy from Washington, Brussels, New York and Moscow as a high-profile go-between. But he failed to gain the full trust of the Palestinians or Israel, which has always kept its closest contacts with the United States via the secretary of state.

An official who spoke on condition of anonymity said Blair wrote to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that he would leave the role of Quartet envoy at the end of June.

When appointed in 2007, Blair at first concentrated on trying to improve economic conditions for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank, pursuing the work of his predecessor James Wolfensohn, a former World Bank president.

Blair sought to reinvigorate Middle East diplomacy at a time when international brokers had largely failed to bring Israel and the Palestinians closer to a resolution of their differences.

Peace negotiations engineered by Washington last broke down a year ago in disputes over Israel’s building settlements on occupied land and prisoner releases sought by the Palestinians.

A source close to Blair in London, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he will "concentrate on strengthening relations between Israel and the wider Arab world," paying more attention to regional diplomacy and "encouraging Israel to take measures to dramatically improve the daily lives of Palestinians in Gaza."

Reuters