Blair Returns to Commons to Face Mps' Questions on Middle East

Tony Blair said today that a "period of calm" was vital for the prospects of peace in the Middle East when he answered questions in the Commons for the first time since he resigned as prime minister last year.

Giving evidence to a Commons select committee in his role as Middle East envoy for the Quartet (the US, UN, EU and Russia), Blair also said that his view of the situation had changed significantly since stepping down as PM.

"We have to alter the current state of events fundamentally," he told the international development committee, which is investigating the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

"What we need to do is to get a period of calm, to get a ceasefire in Gaza, progressively to start reopening the crossings, start to get proper humanitarian help through and then build our way back out of this to a situation where the people of Gaza can be helped and secondly, and very importantly, the situation in Gaza does not disrupt other possibilities of progress," he told them.

He said that his view of the situation had been transformed since his time as prime minister and he now recognized the vital importance of the situation on the ground to enabling constructive political dialog.

Blair said there was "a lot more Israel could do and has to do" but that while it remained under rocket attack there was little prospect of progress.

"A few weeks back we were pressing the Israelis to let in more fuel into Gaza and they then go and kill two innocent Israeli civilians who were trying to get the fuel into Gaza. It does not create a very easy situation.

"Until you get a period of calm in Gaza, you won't get the space into which a more rational and more sensible political discourse starts to happen.

"Without that happening it is very difficult to see how we are going to ease the humanitarian situation."

He added: "I have my own very strong views about how Israel has got to go further and faster, particularly on the West Bank.

"But it is important always to recognize that they are subject to these terrorist attacks; they do have a genuine security threat."

Blair said it was vital that the new US president engaged with the Middle East issue as soon as he is elected later this year.

"With this new American president, it is really important that focus is kept on this all the time," he told the committee.

"It will be a real problem if the new American president takes a couple of years to work his way into it."

He said he now regarded the situation in the Middle East as even more important than he had considered it while he was prime minister.

"It is fundamental to sorting out the region," said Blair. "It is fundamental to peace between the world of Islam and the west."

Blair said that the Berlin conference on the Middle East later this month would be a "really important" opportunity to move the process forward by establishing a proper plan for Palestinian security forces and the implementation of proposals for the civil police force, prisons and courts.

Most Israelis now accepted that a negotiated two-state solution was the only way to stop the violence, he said.

He told the committee: "I believe the majority of sensible Israelis know that there is no alternative to a two-state solution but a big fight continuing for a long period of time."

He said he had not yet visited Gaza personally but hoped to "when I can".

"It's a question of choosing a moment that helps rather than a moment that harms."

labor MP Jim Sheridan questioned whether that absence was down to a lack of trust of Blair by Palestinians, amid criticism of his role in the Iraq war.

"When people talk about whether you are independent or not what they really mean is you are too close to America or Israel," the former prime minister told him.

"But the thing about this peace deal between Palestine and Israel is that it includes Israel and I find ordinary Palestinians know that whoever helps them in this situation has got to have some leverage with Israel and America to be any use in this situation at all.

"All they want is someone to go and help them sort their situation out."

His appearance before the committee coincided with the former cabinet minister Peter Hain calling for Britain to open talks with Hamas, saying the veto on discussions was crippling the Middle East peace process.

Hain's remarks, made in a speech in New York and outlined in a Guardian article, were cleared in advance with the foreign secretary, David Miliband, and differ from the position of the Quartet, who refuse to talk to Hamas without a commitment to renounce violence and recognize Israel.

Hain, drawing on Blair's willingness to talk to the IRA in Northern Ireland, warns that in the Middle East "preconditions have been, and now are, a crippling bulwark against dialog. However, despite the intensity of bitterness and hatred between Hamas and Israel, neither can militarily defeat the other - they will each have to be a party to a negotiated solution that satisfies Palestinian aspirations for a viable state and Israel's need for security.

"In the Middle East, the conflict has not been gripped at a sufficiently high level over a sufficiently sustained period. Initiatives have come and gone, and violence has returned to fill the vacuum. International forces have not been aligned."

Blair has always resisted talks with Hamas, although it is widely thought that unofficial talks do occur. Hamas won elections two years ago, and seized military control of Gaza a year ago.

In the West Bank as many as 612 roadblocks exist, an increase of 236 since 2005. Blair has negotiated the removal of some in recent weeks, starting with a corridor around Jenin. Palestinian security forces will take over a large block of the northern West Bank, which will also be targeted for investment projects, such as a German-funded industrial zone.

As much as ?7.7bn has been offered in aid to the Palestinian economy, but the select committee has been told the investment is pointless without freer movement of labor.

• Click here for minute-by-minute blog post on Blair's session with the committee