Blair to Accept Position as Mideast Envoy

British Prime Minister to Become Quartet's Voice in Peace Process

The United States and its allies in the international "Quartet" that oversees the Middle East peace process are expected to announce tomorrow that Prime Minister Tony Blair has accepted the position as their new special envoy, according to U.S. officials.

Blair's new mission will be to mobilize international support for the Palestinians, help build institutions of governance to entrench the rule of law, and work on economic development issues, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made.

It will not, however, include negotiations that are part of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, which will be reserved for the quartet, composed of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will remain the chief negotiator, the sources added.

Blair's appointment amounts to a "clear statement about support that the Quartet wants to give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the moderate parties in the territories," said a senior U.S. official. Today is Blair's last full day in office.

Blair's prominence "gives him an ability to work with international donors and other organizations out there that will be hard to match," the official added.

Blair will take on the position held by former World Bank President James D. Wolfensohn, who resigned in May 2006 after only 13 months in the job. He quit out of frustration with the deadlock over international aid to the Palestinians following the January election of Hamas.

Blair's responsibilities will be considerably greater than those of previous special envoys, U.S. officials said. Wolfensohn was assigned to help coordinate the economic and political development of the Palestinian Authority after Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, as well as foster contacts between Palestinians and Israelis.

"It's a position that has been in the works since the last days of [former Palestinian President Yasser] Arafat. As you move toward a viable Palestinian state, you need to ensure it has good strong institutions that can provide services and support a democratic government," the senior U.S. official said.

Blair gave the clearest indication yet that he wants the job, saying in London that he was ready, in principle, to try to help bring an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"I think anybody who cares about greater peace and stability in the world knows that a lasting and enduring resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue is essential and, as I have said on many occasions, I would do whatever I could to help such a resolution come about," he told reporters.

Talks on adding Blair as a prominent player in the process have been in the works for two months. Although Russia agreed to Blair's appointment, Moscow still was not enthused about the idea, U.S. officials said.

A joint statement defining the terms of Blair's new job has been written, but the final language about the appointment and his duties was still being worked out today, U.S. officials said.

The appointment was not uniformly welcomed in the Middle East.

"Blair's negatives in the Middle East are well known, and are not counter-balanced by his many successes at home or in Europe," Rami Khouri, director of the American University of Beirut's foreign policy think tank, write in an upcoming column for Lebanon's Daily Star.

Blair's policies "have contributed directly and abundantly to the precise Arab-Israeli conflict and associated tensions in the Middle East that he is now apparently going to try and resolve," Khouri added. "Appointing Tony Blair as special envoy for Arab-Israeli peace is something like appointing the Emperor Nero to be the chief fireman of Rome."

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said in an interview yesterdayin Washington that Blair "likes tough challenges" and feels deeply about the importance of resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"He has believed for a long time and has argued passionately for a full 10 years that this is the conflict that poisons that region and a lot of international relations around the world. If you're able to resolve it, it would not solve all the other problems -- but without solving it you won't resolve the other problems," Beckett said.