Editorial Note: The following news reports are summaries from original sources. They may also include corrections of Arabic names and political terminology. Comments are in parentheses.

Believe it or not, Blair says Israeli occupation and military checkpoints must come to an end, in order to establish real peace

Editorial Note:

Believe it or not, Tony Blair, who spent his political career in service of successive Israeli occupation governments, announced in Nablus today that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories and the military checkpoints must come to an end, in order for real peace to happen!

Wow!

What a genius discovery!

History taught us that this is nothing but lip service employed by guilty politicians, usually after leaving office or in last days of being in office, when they become irrelevant, like the case of Blair.

Tony Blair: the occupation must end and peace efforts should be doubled

Thursday February 07, 2008 15:18 by Ameen Abu Wardah – Nablus - IMEMC News ghassanb at imemc dot org

The Quartet Envoy to the Middle East, Tony Blair, visited the northern West Bank city of Nablus on Thursday, during his visit Blair stated that the Israeli occupation must end and peace efforts should be doubled.

On Thursday Tony Blair visited the city Nablus, in the West Bank. It is his first visit since he took office in Jerusalem and the city of Nablus was handed by the Israeli army to be run by the Palestinian Authority security forces in late 2007.

During the joint press conference with the governor of Nablus Dr. Jamal Mihesen, Blair said that he could not visit the city before due to the security situation, "I am so happy to make this visit especially after security and order has been restored to the city" Blair said. He added that he thanks the governor of Nablus and his colleagues for their efforts regarding this issue.

In addition Blair said that he is aware of the hardships that Palestinians living in Nablus face "we have to keep working to end the occupation of the city which turned it from an economical and commercial capital to very hard situation".

During his visit Blair said that he will meet with Palestinian business men from Nablus to discuss future development projects in the city. According to business men in Nablus, they demanded projects with 320 million USD over the next three years to back the economy of the city; they included infrastructure, and educational projects.

Translated by Ghassan Bannoura – IMEMC News.

Blair: Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories must end
Date: 07 / 02 / 2008  Time:  11:48

Nablus – Ma'an –

The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories must end, Middle East Envoy to the Quartet Tony Blair said on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference in the West bank city of Nablus he said, "Occupation must come to an end, as well as all military checkpoints be removed in order to establish real peace."

On his first visit to the city, he said that two years ago he could not visit Nablus for security reasons, but now he feels happy to be there as the security situation has greatly improved thanks to the enormous efforts of Nablus governor Jamal Muheisin and his colleagues.

Blair emphasized that he knows quite well the degree of suffering the Palestinians face due to occupation and military checkpoints. However, he said, more efforts should be exerted in order to eliminate all Israeli pretexts to continue occupying Nablus, which is striving to become the economic capital of Palestine.

A reliable source told Ma'an that the governor of Nablus has submitted proposals to the Quartet for a series of projects, estimated at 320 million US dollars. The projects are aimed at educational and infrastructure development.

Blair said he would meet with Palestinian businessmen to discuss the priorities, but said he had no idea at this stage as to the amount of aid to be offered to Nablus.

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