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Quartet Middle East envoy updates PM on state of peace talks and Palestinian economy before latter sees Mahmoud Abbas
David Cameron was briefed by Tony Blair in East Jerusalem on Thursday on the state of the Palestinian economy and the Middle East peace talks ahead of a meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas.
Cameron has been in Israel to address its parliament, the Knesset, and meet Israeli leaders. His visit has coincided with one of the biggest rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel in more than a year.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, is trying to broker a peace deal with a deadline set for next month. He admitted to a congressional committee on Wednesday that levels of mistrust between Palestinians and Israelis were at an all time high. But he said he was still hopeful an outline deal could be reached.
Blair's visit to Israel is his 114th since he was appointed as the Quartet Middle East envoy in 2007. He is due to make a large donation to the Labour party for its 2015 general election campaign. His meeting with Cameron, however, was focused on the state of the Middle East talks. Blair is trying to drive forward a the Initiative for Palestinian Enterprise.
Cameron had been out running in the rain for 10 minutes ahead of a business delegation meeting attended by the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu.
Blair's mandate as representative of the Quartet – the UN, US, EU and Russia – is to promote economic growth and job creation in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip and support the institution-building agenda of the Palestinian Authority (PA).
His economic mandate is inextricably intertwined with the peace process since issues such as road closures communications and trade are central to the Palestinian economy flourishing. He has also been trying to enable large-scale Palestinian investments in the tech and housing sectors.
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