Tony Blair: Iranian Threat and Two-State Solution are Contingent

Avraham Zuroff Blair Adds Pressure on Israel
A7 News

Tony Blair, Mideast envoy of the Quartet, told the United States to push Israel and Arabs for a two-state solution as soon as possible. The remarks were made on Thursday, ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s meeting next week with President Barack Obama at the White House. In a speech that was delivered in the U.S. Senate, the former British prime minister stated that the only possible solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict is two states for two nations. According to Blair, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority are in favor of the idea. However, “both of them are in doubt whether this could happen,” he said.

“The opportunity is already here,” Blair told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “However, the window of opportunity won’t remain if not taken advantage of. As President Obama has identified, this is the most opportune time to take advantage of."

"President Obama has made it very clear that this is a strategic priority for the United States to advance towards a negotiated two-state solution," the Mideast envoy said. "This is an issue that Secretary of State Clinton is very familiar with and understands and knows deeply," he added.

However, Blair feels that the Iranian nuclear threat should be intertwined with advancing the two-state negotiations. “If we want to make progress also on the Iranian question, and take that to a peaceful resolution, then progress in the Israel-Palestinian question is an important part of doing that,” he said.

Blair thinks that now is the right time to make peace, due to the Arab nations’ stated promise to recognize the State of Israel on condition that it agree to a Palestinian State in all the land that was restored to Israel in 1967.

However, Blair realized the obstacles in the way of peace in the Mideast, including the Iranian nuclear threat. Blair also commented that Israel would not agree to a Palestinian state if it were unsure if its neighbor is stable and well managed.

The committee head, Senator John Kerry (Dem.) agrees that there is no alternative to negotiations. “All of us understand that peace won’t come to the Middle East easily or speedily,” Kerry said. “I am a partner to Blair’s optimism that the present invites us to an opportunity that we must not forsake,” the senator added.

During Monday’s meeting with President Obama, Prime Minister Netanyahu is expected to push the issue of the Iranian nuclear threat. He has in the past stated that the acceptance of a two-state solution is contingent on the PA's recognizing the State of Israel as a Jewish State. Otherwise, he claims that there cannot be advancement in negotiations between the sides.

The two-state solution, supported by the United States and most of the world, calls for a Palestinian Authority state in Judea and Samaria, leaving Israel barely 11 miles wide in some areas. Referring to the dangers of ceding the strategic real estate, Israeli statesman Abba Eban remarked at the UN in 1969, “I do not exaggerate when I say that it has for us something of a memory of Auschwitz.”