London/Tel Aviv - Tony Blair has always had a mission to make the world a better place, and his expected new role as a broker for Middle East peace would fit the bill perfectly.

'I think that 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. As I have said on many occasions, I would do whatever I could to help such a resolution come about,' the 54-year-old British leader said Tuesday.

As he spoke, a day before his departure from office, plans were being finalized for him to take on a job as special envoy of the so- called Middle East Quartet, which would involve working with the Palestinians on issues of security, governance and the economy.

While some commentators have been scathing about such a role for Blair, who backed the US-led war in Iraq and the invasion of Lebanon last year, Blair himself is convinced he has got the experience and skills to break the stalemate in the Middle East.

An eternal optimist and tough negotiator, Blair believes that his key role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland has qualified him for such a role on the world stage.

'He has always been convinced that, if you lean over the table, in shirt sleeves, looking the other side in the eyes, you can extract a deal,' an official said.

But critics said that Northern Ireland, where Blair's own policy of devolution paved the way, could not be compared with the 'deep changes' required to solve one of the world's most bitter conflicts 'in a region that sustains grudges so easily for hundreds of years.'

The appointment of a heavyweight personality like Blair to the post of Middle East envoy is an indication of the hopes to revive the role of the Quartet and the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

It has been four years since the Quartet launched its attempt to kickstart the process in the form of the 'road map.'

But since the launch in June 2003 of the plan for a staged return to peace negotiations, nothing has happened.

The sides never moved beyond stage one, each demanding the other move first in implementing mutual commitments to rein in militants and uproot settlers' outposts.

Israel opted to change the status quo without negotations, its preoccupation with its mid-2005 unilateral pullout from Gaza and the subsequent elections in Israel and the Palestinian autonomous areas putting any return to the road map on hold.

Hamas victory of the January 2006 Palestinian legislative elections added another nail in its coffin. Israel ruled out any return to peace negotations so long as the radical Islamic movement was in the Palestinian government.

Blair's predecessor, former World Bank director James Wolfensohn, quit 'in frustration' months later, saying the conditions for his job had become 'very difficult.'

Now, Hamas' violent take-over of the Gaza Strip has created an unexpected twist: Its exclusion from the emergency government set up by President Mahmoud Abbas has removed a key obstacle for a return to the peace process and Blair finds himself in a different Middle East to his predecessor.

Although it is unclear how Abbas can impose any solution he negotiates on Hamas in Gaza, and the danger of a return to the same old stalemate over 'who moves first' remains, both he and Olmert have a great interest in movement on the diplomatic front.

Abbas' only hope to stabilize his standing among the Palestinians is to show that, unlike Hamas, he can offer them a political horizon.

Olmert, meanwhile, is in his own leadership crisis over his handling of last summer's Lebanon war while his largest coalition partner, the Labour Party, has threatened to leave his government.

The weakened Israeli leader therefore sounded like he meant it when he told Monday's summit in Sharm el-Sheikh that he wanted to create the 'appropriate conditions' for negotations 'as soon as possible.'

'I have no intention of delaying this,' he said.

Meanwhile, doubts remained Tuesday over the suitability of Blair for a Middle East role.

While the Russians were reported to be 'cool' about the idea,, EU diplomats in Brussels were quoted as saying it was a 'bad joke,' given the distrust in Blair in the Arab world.

'The appointment of Blair will suck a lot of energy out of what the EU is doing,' said one diplomat.

The London Times Tuesday criticized the 'undue haste' in finding a new role for Blair.

'It seems designed to ease the sting of surrendering high office more than to solve the problems of the Middle East,' it said.

source : Monsters and Critics.com