Bush has another office for his friend and firm ally, Tony Blair, who stands down as a prime minister of Britain for Gordon Brown. Blair will succeed Álvaro de Soto (resigned in May) as a Mideast envoy and the present job will be a tight rope walking for Mr. Blair in his pursuit of two state solution for Palestine and Israel.
This is nothing but a US posturing to employ a convoy to solve a self-created problem. How sincerely Mr. Blair will be able to pursue a two state solution for a prolonged Israel-Palestine conflict, I wonder. Even the Mideast countries (except Israel) have reservations on Mr. Blair’s role because he has constantly adopted American and Israeli position in the Mideast.
As I stated above that Mr. Blair is to solve a US created problem, wherein US owes his own share. How? The reason behind the present problem is US Mideast policy and reduced role of UN. Bush administration and Israel blocked the flux of funds to Hamas Govt. wherein the latter even blocked the funds that legally belonged to Palestine.
Then, through an international boycott created a destructive situation to aggravate the misery of people in Palestine. Does US have the right to denounce or boycott a democratically elected government?
Furthermore, US relied on the self-employed interlocutors in Mideast, who rather than serving to a real cause, told US what it wanted to hear. US successfully intrigued to overthrow Hamas govt. and this led to the present debacle of Palestine.
In present perspective, what positive role Mr. Blair, a firm ally of US, can play to win the trust of people, only time will unveil. Will he be able to serve the Palestinian cause? Or Palestinians’ dream to have a separate state will have to wait for another generation?
Mr. Blair has to play a tough role, no doubt, particularly to win the trust of people, who believe that nobody outside Arab can bring peace to the tumultuous region.
In order to solve the Mideast catastrophe, Mr. Blair has to shed his past behind - particularly Bush mania - as long as he is serious about trying.
At the end, one question that every envoy has to answer is - Why Quartet (that include Russia, US, EU and UN) refused to acclaim their elected government? What turn the affairs and aftermath in the Arab world will take - let us wait and watch.
Image Credit: Abc
Source: BBC
