WOUNDED by warring factions at home, and seeking a legacy, Tony Blair has embarked on a tour of the most turbulent region of the world, and promised “I’ll be back”.
Unable to bring peace to his own party, the Prime Minister is hoping instead to be remembered for bringing peace to the Middle East. Days after he was forced by Labour plotters to say that he would resign within a year, Mr Blair met the leaders of Israel and Palestine, and secured a modicum of progress in resolving their conflict.
Determined in his remaining months in power to secure a legacy to be proud of, he promised “permanent personal engagement” in an issue about which he was passionate.
As Mr Blair and his aides left from Heathrow on a chartered British Airways plane on Saturday morning, No 10 played down any prospects of a breakthrough on the trip. But last night officials beamed about “a significant step”.
On Saturday Mr Blair visited the residence of Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of Israel, who has been weakened severely by his handling of the recent Lebanon war. Yesterday the Blair convoy whizzed through the rocky hills of the West Bank to the town of Ramallah. There he visited the war-scarred compound of Mahmoud Abbas, the moderate President of the Palestinian Authority, who has been critically undermined by the electoral triumph of the militant group Hamas.
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After the separate meetings both Mr Abbas and Mr Olmert agreed to meet each other without any pre conditions. Previously, Mr Olmert had said that he would not meet Mr Abbas until after the release of Gilad Schalit, the Israeli soldier held hostage by Hamas militants since being kidnapped in June.
Mr Blair also softened his stance on Hamas, becoming the first Western leader to open up the prospect of talks with a Government that included an unreformed Hamas.
Security forces were braced for demonstrations, but in the end the secrecy surrounding the trip meant most Palestinians were unaware of it, and only one small protest occurred.
The protests are likely to increase today as Mr Blair is expected to fly into Beirut, with religious leaders denouncing his visit even before he arrives.
The one person who came to the support of the embattled British leader was Mr Olmert, who enthused: “Prime Minister Blair is a true and proven friend of the state of Israel.”