18 December 2006
The Prime Minister has pledged to work with the international community to support the Palestinian people and make progress in the Middle East peace process.
Mr Blair was speaking after talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah.
Parts of this transcript may have been edited
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Mr Abbas:
In the name of God the Mighty and the Merciful, it is my pleasure to welcome Mr Tony Blair, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, our friend Mr Tony Blair, here in Ramallah which he visits for the second time this year, and for the third time during his term as Prime Minister. And these visits reflect personal interest and concern, as well as the interest of the government of the United Kingdom for the need to achieve a comprehensive peace in the Middle East region. I seized the opportunity to thank Mr Prime Minister and the government of the United Kingdom for their efforts, continuous efforts, and support for a comprehensive and just solution for the Palestinian question.
We conducted today very important negotiations that address the critical and dangerous situation in the Palestinian territories and the region as a whole, and we also discussed ways and means of overcoming this crisis and we asked from the Prime Minister the need to work on anything, the economic siege and the closure of crossing points, the need to release Palestinian prisoners, including Ministers and Parliamentarians and Palestinian leaders, as well as ending the settlement expansion, the construction of the wall and Israel’s practices and … in Jerusalem. We also reiterated to him that we exerted continuous efforts over these past few months in order to establish a national unity government which unfortunately hit an impasse and reached a dead end. As we also stated in our speech two days ago, we are calling for early Presidential and legislative elections for the Palestinian people to have their say based on a programme that realises the Palestinian best interest, national interest, and corresponds and is consistent with Arab and international requirements and leads of course to the ending of the siege and ending the current crisis, and achieving reciprocal and simultaneous calm between the two sides, the Israeli and the Palestinian, in both the West Bank and Gaza strip which will allow the prospect for a comprehensive political settlement, but by keeping priority though for the formation of a government of experts, of technocrats, national experts who would realise such a cause. In view of the serious decline of the Palestinian question on the international arena and the severe and dangerous internal crisis that we are living in, I hereby reiterate that political pluralism does not mean multiplicity of authorities and having several authorities, and the race for factional armament and aspects of … and breaking down of law and order and I am confident that everybody will assume their responsibility to … the security and safety for Palestinian citizens and establishing the principle of one authority, one weapon and one law.
In this context our negotiations with the Prime Minister focused on the need to intensify the Arab and international efforts in order to achieve a comprehensive and fair peace agreement based on the two state solution and ending the occupation that started in 1967 according to international and UN resolutions and also the Arab peace initiatives.
On another level we are also exerting efforts, continuous efforts, at the Arab and international level in order to go back to the negotiating table in order to find a drastic solution to the question of the Middle East and invest in the realisation by the international community that military force and the continuation of occupying the Arab and Palestinian lands is counter-productive and will not yield any results, and that stability and security in the region could be only achieved when the rights, the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people are granted and the implementation of international UN resolutions and the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with its capital Jerusalem, and finding a solution for the Palestinian refugees question, and the visit of Prime Minister Blair and his recent statements, and his positions, at all times come within this context.
Here we also reiterate in front of you that we are ready to meet Mr Olmert in order to start serious negotiations, direct negotiations that will end the conflict and put an end to the cycle of violence in the region.
Mr Prime Minister, I would like to thank you again and thank the government of the United Kingdom for your effective role in assisting the Palestinian people and alleviating their suffering, and we are confident that you will exert all efforts, and you have actually exerted efforts, intensified efforts with all the relevant parties to assist the Arab and international efforts for the realisation of peace in the Middle East. Again I welcome you here in Ramallah, I welcome Mr Tony Blair in Ramallah and I thank him for his visit.
Prime Minister:
Mr President, thank you very much for your kind welcome to me here today and thank you also for your leadership at this time which is immensely important for the Palestinian people and for the international community.
We have had a very detailed discussion today and some of those discussions obviously involve issues that I want to take further with other parties, as indeed you do as well. But let me try and set in context what we are trying to do. It is important for us, but I think for the whole of the international community, to work with people who want a genuine two state solution - a state of Israel and a state of Palestine living side by side in peace. We want to work with people of moderation and tolerance who understand that in today’s world people from different faiths and background should work together, and we want to work with people who shoulder their responsibilities, who understand the issues that are at stake and are prepared to make sure that we do everything possible to ease the plight of people who are suffering and to make progress. And I have no doubt Mr President that you satisfy all of those criteria. You want the two state solution, you are a leader of moderation and tolerance and you are showing and demonstrating how you are prepared to shoulder your responsibilities in achieving that. And your speech a couple of days ago was I think a landmark speech, a very important speech, and I believe that the next few weeks I would say, not merely the next few months but the next few weeks, are going to be a critical time and it is a critical time for all of us who want to see progress and we want to see progress because people are indeed suffering, your people, the Palestinian people are suffering, the security of the region is affected and you demonstrated by the speech that you gave that you do not want anything to stand in the way of helping the Palestinian people to make progress.
Now when I was here I think six months ago you went almost immediately from the press conference that we had then to try to bring about the national unity government that you desire to see in accordance with the principles that have been laid down by yourself and by the international community, the United Nations and others, to make sure that the basis of that unity government was secure. What has happened unfortunately in those six months is that despite your best efforts you have been unable to reach agreement on that national unity government. Now as you rightly say, if people want to participate in such a government the way of doing so is clear and open to them, but nobody should have a veto on progress, nobody should be able to say to you, or to the Palestinian people, or to the international community that we are going to stop progress being made towards that two state vision which is the only solution that will work in order to bring peace between the people of Israel, the people of Palestine and the wider region.
So I believe what is important following your speech is that the international community mobilises its efforts to support you in your office as President, to support the Palestinian people and make sure that we stand ready now to do everything we can to give you the strength and purpose to be able to deliver what you wish for your people. And I hope therefore that we will be in a position over these coming weeks to put together an initiative that allows us both to give that support, in particular support for reconstruction and development and to alleviate the suffering and the plight of the Palestinian people, but also crucially that gives us a political framework within which we can move forward on that two state solution.
Now I hope and believe that that can be done, but I would like to make one thing very, very clear from not just my own country’s position, but I think this should be the position of the international community today. You have given leadership in this situation, you have said you are determined to find a way forward. If the international community really means what it says about supporting people who share the vision of a two state solution, who are moderate, who are prepared to shoulder their responsibilities then now is the time for the international community to respond to the vision that you have set out. And I intend to do everything I can over the next period of time, but in particular because I believe this is so critical and urgent, over the coming weeks to make sure we can deliver that support both in terms of helping people who are suffering, but also in terms of the political framework that can deliver a just and lasting peace. Now that is my commitment to you and to the Palestinian people today.
And once again Mr President thank you very much for welcoming me here today. I said when I was here before that I would come back, I have come back again and I will not rest for a single moment until we have delivered what we both want to see.
Question:
My question is to Mr Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair. Do you have with you any plan to push the peace process according to your previous commitments and promises, and do you have any British ideas about a true calm in return for Israeli withdrawal, as Hamad Yousef the Deputy Prime Minister is saying?
Prime Minister:
Yes we have been obviously discussing the details of the plan to move us forward, but you should just remember one thing, that we were very supportive of the President’s attempts to form the national unity government, but the truth of the matter is that we have been unable to do so because the principles on which such a government could be formed, and those principles are not just the principles of the President of the Palestinian Authority but also the international agreed principles, those aren’t accepted by Hamas. And the difficulty therefore is that we can’t be in a situation where the Palestinian people are held back, where progress is held back by that refusal, and I can assure you that everybody is on that line, the same line, and any reporting to the contrary is quite mistaken.
Question:
Mr President first of all, can you give us your idea of what message you would like the Prime Minister to take on to the Israelis later on this afternoon, particularly on the issue of Palestinian prisoners; and secondly, can you give us your assessment of your situation at the moment, in your view to be frank how weak are you? And Mr Prime Minister, you have made this tour of the Middle East in the last few days, you have extolled the virtues of democracy, particularly in Iraq, how do you respond to the accusation that here you are picking and choosing your democracies, you like the democrats you like, you are rejecting those you don’t like; and secondly, can you be more specific about how much money you have put on the table today and how you respond to the criticism that this is effectively an attempt to if you like and to be frank, to bribe the Palestinian people into supporting the President?
Mr Abbas:
The current situation is a very difficult one from a security perspective and we are always attempting and seeking to avoid these kinds of tensions and which also happened last night and this morning, because it is in the best interest of the Palestinian people to have calm, and regardless of the results of this conflict and tensions it is going to be a big loss for the Palestinian people. We do not look at who wins or who loses, we look at it as any bullet that is being shot in any area to target any person is a loss, we are in a lose-lose situation and this will not be in our best interest currently or in the future. What we discussed with the Prime Minister, we discussed about his visit to Mr Olmert, we talked about the British position. We are confident of the Prime Minister’s position in terms of the peace process. What he also mentioned today, and what he mentioned in the past, and he is committed to everything he has stated, and this is the image that he will take with him and the message that he will take with him to the Israeli Prime Minister. We demanded many things related to the prisoners, related to the Palestinian money that is being restricted, and also the alleviation of suffering of Palestinian people, the road blocks that are imposed, the restrictions, these are things that we want Israel to alleviate and lift and this is what we discussed with the Prime Minister so that he can take this message and these demands to Mr Olmert. And I reiterated in my statement today that I am ready to meet with Mr Olmert at any time because we need each other, we have a joint cause, we have to deal with each other, we have to communicate in order to address our problems jointly.
Prime Minister:
First of all we respect any democratic mandate, but the President also has a democratic mandate, he is the elected President of the Palestinian people. And it is not that people are refusing to allow Hamas to participate in the way forward, that way is open to them, they know what has to be done, but what we are saying is that they cannot have a veto on the process or the progress that all of us want to see. Because if the real issue is indeed the suffering of the Palestinian people, the desire for people to achieve statehood, we have a way forward. And one of the things I want to say to people in this region is understand the international community is in one place on this, we all of us want to see the two state solution, we want a viable independent Palestinian state where Palestinian people can govern their own affairs, where they can achieve prosperity, where they can achieve justice. We can’t do that however unless it is done with people who accept the very basis of that two state solution, namely that we have two states. And therefore the issue is not about excluding anybody, the issue is whether people exclude themselves.
And as for the financial support, the reason why it is important that we give support to the Palestinian Authority and to the President in the work that he is trying to do is precisely because we recognise that over the past period of time the incomes of Palestinian people have fallen, there have been much lower levels of economic development, people are suffering as a result of that. So if the international community means what it says, this is the moment, when the President has set a way forward, to come behind him and support him. Now that is really what we are saying. And in the end, the democratic decisions are obviously for the Palestinian people themselves, they will make that decision themselves. But what we are saying is our job has got to be to support the people of moderation who want to find that two state solution and are prepared to show the leadership to get it.
Question:
Mr President, in your speech you kept the door open for establishing a national unity government. If the calm is established on the street would there be a dialogue with the Hamas movement about this government? And for the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, a senior Hamas official has said that they have contacts between the party and your government. Could you confirm please?
Mr Abbas:
I stated in my speech, it was very clear, we negotiated about a national unity government that is able to end the economic siege that will fulfil the Palestinian, Arab and international requirements, and this is something I have mentioned everywhere and it is also stated in the national consensus document that was endorsed by all parties, including Hamas. The new government should be able to have the support of the Palestinian people, the Arabs and the region and the international community. These are the principles that we wanted to form a national unity government accordingly, the main principle and basic objective of this government is to end the siege. We were unsuccessful until this moment and therefore I said the other option was to go back to the people because the basic law stipulates that the people are the source of all powers, then we have to go back to the people. But let me assume that we are able today, or tomorrow, or after tomorrow we are able to establish a national unity government on this basis I think then we will go for it and we will establish it and at the highest peak possible.
Prime Minister:
Let me make one thing clear to you, the British government is certainly not negotiating with Hamas or with any part of Hamas, and what is more I think the events of the past few days have demonstrated how impossible it would be to conceive of a situation in which people were able to reach out in circumstances where Hamas is making it so clear that they cannot agree to the principles that have been set out. So I think the President has absolutely correctly described the situation. It is always open for people to participate provided they participate on the same basis as everybody else, but if they are not prepared to do so there is no way forward with them. Because you cannot, as I have constantly said to people, you cannot have a negotiated solution to this issue, which is what we all want to see, it is the reason I am back here again, we all want to see it, but you can’t have such a solution unless people accept the basic principles, and those are the principles laid down not just by the President of the Palestinian Authority but by the international community, they are United Nations principles. It is all people are asking for. And really the significance of what has happened over the past few days is that people are saying look you know the train should leave the station, it is time to start making progress on this journey and if people want to get on board, that is their choice, but they are not going to prevent the rest of us moving forward precisely in order to help the suffering of people who are suffering, and suffering a very great deal at the moment, and they are the people who should come first.
Question:
The Prime Minister’s Special Envoy, Lord Levy, is sitting on the second row of this press conference, this is the same question for both of you. President Abbas, what has Lord Levy done for you? And Prime Minister what has Lord Levy done for you?
Prime Minister:
I think perhaps I may be able to answer this first. He has performed an excellent job as my Envoy in very difficult circumstances where we desperately want to make progress. And the whole reason I am here is because of the importance I attach to this process and anything and anyone who can help that is someone who is immensely helpful to me.
Mr Abbas:
We know Lord Levy for a long time and we have met on several occasions, and he visits us frequently and he always has constructive ideas for us in order to push the peace process forward, in order to clarify the road ahead between us and between his government and his Prime Minister who holds him in high respect and esteem and he is also supportive of Mr Tony Blair. And therefore we appreciate the efforts of Lord Levy in this context as a special envoy of Prime Minister Tony Blair and as a friend to us.
Question:
President Abbas, are you still going to go ahead with the elections despite the violence and the fighting in Gaza, and if elections take place are you going to run for President again?
Mr Abbas:
When we decided yesterday through the organisation, official institutions, which is the central executive committee of the PLO which is also responsible for the PMA, as well as internally when we discussed with my brothers in the central executive committee of Fatah movement the decision was very clear and we are going to early elections, legislative and presidential. There is nothing from our point of view that prohibits that, we are democratic people, we believe in democracy. And if this is our case, why then can’t we go back to the people to have their say? The will of the people, the people elected me on 9 January 2005 and elected Hamas on 25 January 2006, we want to experience and test the decisions of the people, do they still have confidence in those people who they elected? It is their say now, we are in a problem, we find ourselves in an impasse and this impasse has lasted for more than 9 months and the people cannot wait any longer, the people are suffering, the people are suffering from the economic situation, the social, the financial, the security situation. As the person who is responsible, what is my duty? My duty is to look for solutions to alleviate the plight of the people and I am determined, as I stated in my speech, and please go to my speech, and I am determined to conduct the elections.
Question:
A question first of Mr Blair. Israeli newspapers this morning quote Israeli sources saying that they attach no special significance to your visit, and also that you only go on these kind of trips when you are weak at home. They are right, aren’t they? And the second question for President Abbas. You are already being labelled by Hamas as the candidate for Israel and the United States. Is high profile support from Mr Blair actually going to lose you support among the Palestinians?
Prime Minister:
First of all I think that my interest in the Palestinian issue is hardly new. I think over the past few years I have made it clear why I think it is so important and I don’t think this is actually something to do with how domestic politics interacts with international politics, I think it is all to do with whether we can find the right plan that fits the bits together, that is the really crucial thing. What we need to do now is to concentrate on the fact that the President, after many many months of trying, has said well there are obstructions in the way to making progress, I am nonetheless going to find a way round those obstructions and ensure that progress is made. And really I think it is as simple as that. And I think you probably also you know misjudge where people are in this region. The most important thing is that people want the progress to be made, and they realise there isn’t going to be progress unless the whole of the international community comes behind such progress, and that includes Britain and European countries, it includes America, it includes the Arab countries as well. And as I shall say in the last part of my visit out to this region, I think there are very clear strategic choices opening up in this region today for everybody and it is important we make the right choices.
Mr Abbas:
When I went to the Presidential elections on 9 January 2005 there were several other candidates for Presidency, there were 6 other candidates, there were 4,000 international and Arab observers. I haven’t heard from one single observer that he saw an Israeli or American voting and casting their ballots in the ballot boxes, I don’t think that 62.5% of the Palestinian people represent the Israeli will or the American will the vote of the Palestinian people represents the will of the Palestinian people and the decision of the Palestinian people, I was elected by the will of the Palestinian people and I am here by the will of the Palestinian people. Other than that, the accusations that I will go back alone.
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