Asked about his views about the Israeli government’s plan to continue building the fence, Prime Minister, Tony Blair, said in a press conference in London yesterday.:

We have expressed our own misgivings too because what we don't want is a situation where de facto the boundaries are changed, because that would mean that a peace settlement is less likely and less possible. But I have got no doubt at all that the only way of dealing with this ultimately is to get the agreement on the security measures that need to be taken by the Palestinian Authority, on the Israeli side as well, in cooperation together because that is the only way we are going to take away the pressure on the Israeli government to carry on doing what it can to protect its citizens. And I have learnt enough from the process that we have engaged in in Northern Ireland to realise you can stand here and disagree with certain measures that are taken by the Israeli government or the Palestinian Authority, but in the end unless you get an agreement, and that agreement has got to start with the security measures, you are not going to make progress on this. So yes, we have the same misgivings, but in the end the only way we are going to get that security fence taken down is to make the progress in the peace deal.”

In response to the following question “ what is going to be done to bolster Abu Mazen against a Yasser Arafat that is trying to undermine him all the time? The Prime Minister said:

“ In respect of the last point, the most important thing we can do you know is to show real practical progress, that is what Abu Mazen needs to show his people, that his way of working, which is to advocate and work closely for a Palestinian state, but in a way where there is peaceful co-existence with the state of Israel, and that delivers results, and that is the most important thing that we can do to help him do that, which is what we are trying to do. In respect of the Middle East, you see I think that Iraq has brought about the possibility of real change, because certainly from my talks with the Lebanese yesterday, and from what we know of the attitude of other countries too, there is a real sense in which people know that a changed Iraq is going to change the Middle East, that a renewed Middle East peace process is going to change the Middle East, and I think many of those countries want to be part of this change rather than set apart from it. And in the end that is their choice. And I have noticed in the whole of the Middle East a real sense that provided we pursue the cause of the Middle East peace process with vigour, and genuine even-handedness and fairness, provided we do that and we support Abu Mazen in the progress he wants to achieve, I think there is every possibility that Iraq in retrospect will be seen, whatever else it is seen as, as a transformative event for prospects in the Middle East. And that, as I said in my speech to Congress, is what it should be.