British prime minister, Tony Blair, issued a defiant response to Israel yesterday by pushing ahead with his plan for a Middle East peace conference next Tuesday, even though it has been reduced to a skeleton of the original proposal.
He promised a further conference once the Palestinians were free to travel.
Israel has vetoed Palestinian representatives’ trips to London, meaning the meeting falls far short of the ambitious plan for final status talks pledged by Blair in the autumn.
Blair and the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, aim to include Palestinian leaders in the London talks by telephone.
Straw said yesterday: ”This is an important initiative. The reform agenda matters too much for us to allow it to become stalled. It is vital to the search for peace.”
The main purpose in pressing ahead is to win over sections of opinion in the Arab world, where there is widespread anger that the west is concentrating on Iraq.
In an interview with Reader’s Digest published yesterday, Blair said: ”Israel is subjected to brutal terrorist attacks from out of the occupied territories, but it’s important we realise there are innocent Palestinians suffering greatly.”
The Palestinian representative to the UK, Afif Safieh, will attend the conference. Joining in by telephone will be the information minister, Yasser Abed Rabbo; the planning minister, Nabil Shaath; and the finance minister, Salam Fayyad. – Guardian Unlimited Â