Speaking at the Dorchester Hotel yesterday before his father fell ill, Tony Blair told a symposium called East-West: the Art of Dialogue that he was due to go to the Middle East on Sunday on his 90th visit since he became a peace negotiator.
“My wife says it’s not the number of visits that matter, it’s the progress you make,” he told delegates of the Shafik Gabr Foundation, which encourages cultural exchanges between East and West. “I didn’t think that was very helpful in the current situation.”
Talking about the present situation in Gaza, the former PM said everyone wants dialogue because there is no alternative but first they must be brought to the negotiating table.
“When I was in British politics, people said I should listen to the people,” he said. “I told them I was listening but everyone said different things. It’s the same in the Middle East.”
Congratulated on his role as a peacekeeper in Ulster, Blair said: “When I began the dialogue in Northern Ireland ...” Surely it was John Major who did that, whispered an ex-Tory MP.
