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Get real - Blair
04/11/2007 21:59 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Special Middle East peace envoy Tony Blair called on Israel and the Palestinians on Sunday "to get real" in order to make peace possible.
"This is the time for everyone to get real," the former British prime minister said in a speech at the Saban Forum think-tank in Jerusalem.
"If Israel truly believes its long-term security is best served by the Palestinians having a state, it is time actually to make it happen; not to wait and see if it happens, but to push vigorously for the conditions in which it will happen," Blair said.
"If the Palestinians want a state, they have to accept the responsibility of statehood - taking the tough decisions to sort out their capability, most particularly on security.
"The Palestinian side has to prove that it can run a state and govern it well," he said shortly after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel may be able to conclude a peace deal with the Palestinians by the end of 2008. Core issues
He went on to say that the stumbling block in the talks between Israel and the Palestinians did not lie in the core issues of the conflict.
"The irony is the final settlement is not hard to see. It is visible in the distance, the house on the hill. But the path to it is utterly fraught," he said.
Blair, who said he was working with the Palestinians on a plan to build state institutions ahead of an international donors' conference in Paris in December, called on the international community to support the peace process.
"Intentions will not suffice. Only actions will. If the rest of us truly want to help, we are going to have to give it focus, time, relentless effort and support," he said.
- AFP
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