Immediate Gaza Ceasefire is Possible, Says Tony Blair

Tony Blair today said he thought a ceasefire could be agreed between Israel and Hamas provided a deal could be struck to cut off the supply of arms into Gaza.

In an interview on Radio 4's Today program, Blair said that on the basis of conversations he had had in his role as the Middle East special envoy for the Quartet - the UN, the US, the EU and Russia - he believed that it could be possible to bring "a quick halt" to the fighting.

"I think the position is that there are circumstances in which we could get an immediate ceasefire and that's what people want to see," said Blair, in an interview conducted in Jerusalem.

"I think the circumstances focus very much around clear action to cut off the supply of arms and money from the tunnels that go from Egypt into Gaza. I think if there were strong, clear, definitive action on that, that would give us the best context to get an immediate ceasefire and to start to change the situation."

Blair, who described the situation in Gaza as "hell", said that he had discussed the prospect of a ceasefire with the Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, and other members of the Israeli government. He insisted that "real ideas" were being discussed within the international community, and between Egypt and Israel, as to how the cutting of supplies into Gaza could be monitored.

"The question is can this be put together in such a way that we get the immediate ceasefire that people want to see? And then you have to address in the longer term the question of how you get Palastinian unity."

Asked whether he thought Hamas would be willing to agree to a deal of this kind, Blair said: "It is really, really difficult to judge. All I can say is that I hope so because if they truly do care about people in Gaza there is a possible way through this that would have an immediate halt and that is obviously what any responsible person should try and achieve."

He went on: "I hope very much that they recognise that this is a terrible event for the people of Gaza, that the suffering is appalling and that the only way to stop it and to stop it definitively is to have a situation where the rockets stop coming out of Gaza, the incursions stop coming into Gaza and we start to return Gaza to some sort of civilisation."

Blair acknowledged that conditions in Gaza were terrible.

"The truth is, for anyone living in Gaza, it's hell. It's bound to be. You have a situation where you are living in an effective war zone. The Gaza strip is about 20 miles by four miles. It's not a very large piece of territory ... Of course, Hamas and their positions are well dug in within the civilian population. The notion that you can have a war going on around Gaza that is going to be anything other than a civilian catastrophe is absurd, obviously."

Asked if he felt that western countries should start negotiating directly with Hamas, Blair said: "I think most people in the international community, and I certainly include myself in this, want to get into a dialog with Hamas but we have got to have a basis for doing so."

There had to be some "common principles of agreement" and that was not the case when Hamas still thought it was "perfecty justified in sending suicide bombers to kill innocent civilians in Israel".

Blair acknowledged that there was a "risk" that the Israeli attacks could have radicalized the Palestinians and further increased support for Hamas. But he said he was not sure this had happened.

"One of the interesting things is that on the West Bank ... the fact is the Palestinian authority has kept control," he said.

Blair also said it was important to understand how the problem came about. "It came about because there is a fundamental difference on the Palestinian side between the Palestenian authority, based in Ramallah, that runs the West Bank and that effectively wants a peaceful path to a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine, and Hamas, that at the present time is still adoping the view that terrorism and violence is a justified way in order to achieve that state.

"And until you resolve that basic difference, it is difficult to get Palestinian unity. And until you get Palestinian unity you cannot get a Palestinian state."

Asked if he had any advice for the the incoming US president, Barack Obama, about how to deal with the peace process, Blair said: "What I've said is very clear. If we want to resolve this, we can. The most frustrating thing about this in my view is not that it's not resolvable, but that it is."

He said three conditions had to be met. There had to be a "credible, viable peace process", there had to be real progress on the ground, and there had to be Palestinian unity.