By Xinhua
Cairo : Mideast Quartet envoy Tony Blair called Friday for an action to reach an political agreement between the Palestinians and Israel within certain time, reported Qatar’s al-Jazerra satellite news channel.
Blair, who is currently on a tour in the Middle East region seeking to speed up the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, made the call in an interview with al-Jazerra.
The Palestinian and Israeli sides should not take any measures that could hinder the final status negotiations, Blair told al-Jazerra.
Meanwhile, the former British premier called for international assistance for the Palestinians to build their educational, health and security institutions.
The international donors will pledge to support the Palestinians in their conference in Paris next week, during which the donors will grant some 5.6 billion U.S. dollars to Palestinians, Blair hoped.
Earlier on Thursday, Blair expressed his confidence in solving the final-status issues such as the borders of a future Palestinian state, and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, saying they were “resolvable” if the two sides had confidence in each others’ intentions.
The “real challenge” was convincing sceptical Israelis and Palestinians that a peace deal could be reached, he told Israel’s Channel 10 television.
Negotiators from Israel and the Palestinian National Authority(PNA) held their first meeting of peace negotiations on Wednesday with little progress but an agreement about a next meeting.
In the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis in late November, PNA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert launched the talks aimed at reaching a statehood agreement next year, before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January 2009.