ISRAEL: A weekend Middle East visit by British prime minister Tony Blair has spurred both Israeli and Palestinian leaders to declare a willingness to resume long-moribund talks without any preconditions.
Mr Blair, who met both Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas during his visit, also tried to draw Hamas into efforts to renew negotiations, but a spokesman for the Islamic organisation rejected his condition - that his group recognise Israel and renounce violence.
"For the past months, the situation has gone backwards and not forwards," said Mr Blair, after meeting Mr Abbas in Ramallah. But, he added, "there is a window of opportunity, even if it does seem very bleak".
For his part, the Palestinian leader said he was "ready immediately for serious negotiations to end the conflict. I am ready to meet prime minister Ehud Olmert without conditions."
Mr Olmert was quoted as telling the weekly cabinet meeting yesterday that: "The time has come to renew the diplomatic negotiations with the Palestinians, in order to create a new horizon not just with the Palestinians, but with all the states in the region."
While the visit was a welcome respite for Mr Blair, who has been under intense pressure back home, the prospect of renewed talks could serve as a political lifeline for Mr Abbas, whose position has become increasingly tenuous since Hamas ascended to power earlier this year. Mr Olmert, too, faces strong public criticism over his management of the offensive against Hizbullah last month.
A meeting between Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas was in the works in June but the abduction of an Israeli soldier derailed efforts to get the two together for what would have been their first formal meeting since the Israeli leader took office in early April.
The prospects of a meeting became even more remote after Israel launched a broad offensive in Gaza in response to the capture of Cpl Gilad Shalit from a base inside Israel. Mr Olmert made it clear during Mr Blair's visit that while he was ready to meet Mr Abbas, the condition for any progress with the Palestinians was the release of Cpl Shalit.
Since Hamas formed a new government, Israel and western nations have boycotted the Palestinian Authority. But Mr Blair said yesterday that if Hamas was part of a national unity government with groups like Fatah that was "based on the quartet requirements. . . then I believe it is right that the international community deal with such a government". This, however, would require that the Palestinian government recognise Israel and renounce violence.
A Hamas spokesman rejected Mr Blair's terms, saying that while the Islamic movement was ready to form a coalition government with Fatah, it would not accept "standards that are dictated".
Mr Blair is aware that the boycott of the Hamas-led government has crippled the Palestinian economy and deepened poverty. A survey published yesterday found that some 65 per cent of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza live below the poverty line.
Mr Blair is due to arrive in Beirut today but Hizbullah and a coalition of secular parties, as well Lebanon's senior Shia cleric, have warned him he is not welcome in Lebanon, describing him as a partner in Israel's war with Hizbullah.