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| By: Associated Press |
| Published: August 8, 2006 |
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Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday that he is confident a Lebanon cease-fire agreement can by concluded within a day, and said he would continue his diplomatic efforts by telephone as he begins a delayed vacation.
In an interview with Sky News, Blair said he would do "all I can possibly do" while he was away.
"I've put off going away for a couple of days because it was necessary to get everybody in the international community together and get a text (of the resolution) and we've done it now," Blair said.
"We need to take account of the reasonable representations made by the Arab League and the Lebanese. We need to get the resolutions down tomorrow and then ... deal with the underlying problems," he said.
In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., Blair said it was crucial to get a cease-fire as soon as possible so that attention could shift to the Israeli-Palestine question which he said was "completely fundamental" to many of the issues in the Middle East.
"I think we can achieve what the Lebanese government wants to see as well as what the Israeli government wants to see, which is the Lebanon government back in full charge of its own territory without us leaving a vacuum in which the Hezbollah militia can move in," Blair said.
The prime minister said it was unlikely that British troops would be involved in an international peacekeeping force.
"I do not think that the idea is for British forces to be in there," Blair said. "For very obvious reasons -- particular with Afghanistan at the moment -- we have got a lot of commitments." |
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