Russians withhold approval of Blair envoy role

The appointment of Tony Blair as a special Middle East envoy ran into a last-minute hitch last night when the Russians withheld their approval at the meeting of the international Quartet which was supposed to approve it.

The US State Department had earlier signalled an agreement to Mr Blair's appointment, while the EU's Middle East envoy, Marc Otte, said he hoped a deal could be reached overnight. The Russian representative, however, refused to give his blessing without further consultations with his country's political leaders.

Mr Otte said the Russian delegation had failed to give "a green light" to the Blair post at the Jerusalem Quartet meeting and would be seeking further consultations with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, who is the region and met Tzipi Livni, the Israeli Foreign Minister, in Tel Aviv yesterday.

Russia has been at odds with other members of the Quartet before, such as in its willingness to continue contacts with Hamas despite the ban by the US and the EU. Mr Otte said that he did not know what the Russian reservations were on the Blair post.

Mr Otte also confirmed that the core of Mr Blair's remit "for the time being" would be the - on the face of it - highly restricted one of helping to build Palestinian institutions in preparation for a future Palestinian state. Mr Otte said that this had been a "focus" of Mr Blair's "for a number of years" and added: "He has been very consistent about this."

Some diplomatic observers here, however, think that Mr Blair, who was forced to restrict his planned wide-ranging international Middle East conference two years ago to such questions of Palestinian institution building, may seek in time to extend his remit to embrace wider efforts to resolve the conflict.

Mr Otte confirmed that no one else was being considered for the post and that the job had not been previously discussed in the Quartet before Mr Blair's name came up.

He added: "Part of the process [of his candidacy for the job] was that he volunteered to do that." The idea was that he would "add value" rather than replace current international efforts in the region.

Mr Otte said the question of whether Mr Blair would have the freedom to talk to Hamas in his new role - assuming it goes ahead - had not come up in yesterday's discussion.

He added: "The Quartet is not a court or a regulatory body." Its members are free to act as they see fit, he said.

Earlier, Mr Blair had said in London: "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."

* The captors of the BBC reporter Alan Johnston insisted yesterday that they were not prepared to negotiate. In a statement, the Army of Islam group said: "The demands are very clear. There is no discussion or bargaining in this issue even if he will remain in captivity for 1,000 years or he is slaughtered like a sheep." Johnston has been held since 12 March.

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