Blair visits Gaza - but without seeing Hamas

Monday, March 2. Tony Blair made his first visit to the Gaza Strip yesterday since becoming the envoy in the region for 'the Quartet' – a group of nations comprising the US, Russia, the EU and the UN. The former British Prime Minister visited representatives from the Gaza community but did not speak to any Hamas officials as the group is regarded internationally as a terrorist organisation.

Speaking to Al Jazeera after his visit (see video below), Blair said that unless Israel agreed to open the border crossings into the Gaza Strip the aid pledged in a reconstruction conference today in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh would be of limited use. "We need to get the politics right," said Blair. "It's not just the amount of money pledged, it's also about resolving the political impasse. That political impasse is about reopening the crossings."

Today, Blair will join representatives from 75 nations at Sharm el-Sheikh where they are expected to pledge almost $3bn in aid to help rebuild Gaza after the 22-day Israeli offensive that ended on January 17. The US, represented by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, is expected to donate $900m while Saudi Arabia will contribute $1bn.

Neither Israel nor Hamas are attending the one-day conference where Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will give his assurance that any aid channelled through his Palestinian Authority will not fall directly into the hands of Hamas.

An editorial in the Independent says that Blair's visit to Gaza on Sunday could not have been more timely. "The mere fact that Mr Blair has gone to Gaza, hot on the heels of other key Western leaders including Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy chief, shows that everyone accepts that progress cannot be made towards a comprehensive Middle East peace by pretending Gaza – or its Hamas government – do not exist."

The provision of vast aid packages can only be successful if Hamas are at least recognised tacitly, says the paper, and "while Mr Blair was careful to meet no Hamas officials on his visit, it is equally clear that his team must have arranged the trip with officials from Gaza's Hamas government".

In the Christian Science Monitor, Ilene Prusher agrees that without peace agreements between Israel and Hamas, most of the reconstructive aid agreed to at today's conference will be useless. "Without a substantial shift in Israel's policy, the $2.8 billion the Palestinian Authority hopes will be pledged on Monday will probably not go beyond humanitarian needs," she says. "Until Israel and Hamas reach a negotiated truce, which is being worked on through Egyptian mediation, a whole range of reconstruction projects will remain theoretical."

FIRST POSTED MARCH 2, 2009