Blair peace initiative unacceptable, says Palestinian PM

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia poured scorn on Tony Blair’s peace initiative today – throwing into doubt a London conference that Israel has already said it will boycott.

He said he was disappointment with Mr Blair’s plan to hold a conference focusing on reforms in the Palestinian Authority.

Both men held talks in the West Bank town of Ramallah yesterday where Mr Blair proposed holding a one-day London conference to promote administrative, economic and security reform the Palestinians need to make before they can reach a peace deal and have an independent state.

“We don’t need to go to a conference so we can be rehabilitated and trained how to negotiate. We are capable of doing all these things,” Qureia told his Cabinet today.

He said the Palestinians had hoped for a wider conference that would deal with the issues of a final settlement between Israel and the Palestinians.

“We are in need of an international conference on peace and not a meeting,” Qureia said, adding that Blair’s view that the Palestinians were unprepared for talks was ”unacceptable”.