Middle East Quartet to meet in Lisbon next week
Fri Jul 13, 2007 1:49PM EDT
By Axel Bugge
LISBON (Reuters) - The Quartet of Middle East mediators will meet in Lisbon on July 19 at what will be former British Prime Minister Tony Blair's first meeting as the group's envoy, the United Nations and European officials said on Friday.
The Quartet comprises the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will attend as will U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is on a visit to Portugal on that day.
"The meeting comes at a crucial moment and will be an opportunity to assess the recent events and discuss the way forward to advance the cause of peace in the Middle East," U.N. spokeswoman Marie Okabe said at a news briefing.
She said the meeting would allow the Quartet to discuss with Blair how to help the Palestinian Authority to develop its institutions and economy.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said it would be the first opportunity for the Quartet to talk to Blair about his role as new envoy.
A Portuguese Foreign Ministry source said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov might also attend.
Blair was appointed by the Quartet on June 27 -- the day he left office after 10 years in power -- and his role was aimed at raising funds for the Palestinians, building their ruling institutions and promoting economic development.
Since his appointment, Blair has sought a broader role as Middle East envoy that would give him more direct involvement in peacemaking, diplomats have told Reuters.
"The Quartet will not give him a free hand, but Blair is a huge political figure and will to a certain extent do what he wants to do," said an EU official in Brussels.
Asked whether the United States believed Tony Blair's mandate should be expanded, Casey said the mandate provided by the quartet for Blair was clear and "fairly substantial to begin with."
Casey added that as Blair is a respected world leader "ministers and others will be happy to listen to whatever advice he has."
The Quartet's meeting will also be its first since Hamas captured Gaza from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement in June. That transformed the Palestinian political and security landscape, effectively dividing the Palestinians between Fatah in the West Bank and Hamas in Gaza.
The Quartet last met in Germany on May 30 and Portugal has now assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said he expects to meet Abbas early next week to discuss, among other things, Israel's gesture to free 250 members of Abbas's Fatah faction from jail. Israel holds about 10,000 Palestinian prisoners.
Privately, politicians in both Israel and the Palestinian Authority display little optimism about the prospects for resuming negotiations on a Palestinian state.
Olmert is deeply unpopular and in a poor position to make concessions that Abbas is seeking, while the Palestinians are hobbled by the division between Fatah and Hamas.
Yet the world powers are keen to see more stability and U.S. President George W. Bush has reaffirmed that he would like to see a Palestinian state by the time he leaves office in 18 months.
(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor in Brussels, Patrick Worsnip at the U.N. and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem, Sue Pleming in Washington)
Middle East Quartet to meet in Lisbon next week
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