Tony Blair abandons Gaza visit amid specific security threat

[TriWooOx]

Tony Blair today hastily cancelled his visit to the Gaza Strip and headed back to Jerusalem after receiving what his aides described as a "specific security threat" minutes before crossing the border.

With his advanced security party having already gone through the Erez passenger crossing into the territory at 9.45am local time, the international peace envoy's motorcade was ordered to turn around and abort its journey.

Details of the threat against Mr Blair, who aimed to visit infrastructure projects in his capacity as international Middle Eastern peace envoy, were this morning unknown.

However, as well as security fears, it may have been postponed for diplomatic reasons as Mr Blair would have had to pass through several Hamas military checkpoints to get to the sites he was visiting, a prospect which it is believed may have caused diplomatic embarrassment as the West currently has no relations with the territory's Islamist rulers.

Mr Blair would have been the first major international official to visit the Gaza Strip since Hamas seized power last summer.

"Unfortunately we had to cancel the visit because of a specific security threat... we had to turn back on the road," Ruti Winterstein, his spokesman, told the AFP news agency.

She added that the former British Prime Minister was committed to visiting the impoverished Palestinian territory and hoped to schedule another trip at a later time.

Mr Blair had been expected to visit schools and a sewage treatment plant in the town of Beit Lahiya, which make up part of internationally-sponsored regeneration and investment initiatives designed to improve Palestinian infrastructure.

Mr Blair last visited Gaza in 1998 when he was Prime Minister. The Quartet - the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - appointed him to the envoy post a year ago with an economic focus to bolster the chances of a peace deal this year.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 335122.ece

[K-Sensor]

Tony said he was going to fix the Palestinian - Jewish problem in the term he got after 7-7.  What happened to that promise.  nothing I bet.