President Shimon Peres to Tony Blair: 'This is a time for historic decisions, not political ones'

The President of the State of Israel, Shimon Peres, met this afternoon with the Quartet Representative to the Middle East, Tony Blair. President Peres opened the meeting and said, "We are now facing the most crucial time since the establishment of the new Middle East in 1948. Since then the world has changed considerably but one thing reminds me of the beginning and that is the importance of the decisions. This is a time for historic decisions, not political ones. Whatever decisions will be taken will have an historic effect with consequences that will be hard to change afterwards. All of us must come together and understand the depth and the seriousness of the choice before us. There is a window of opportunity, we can make peace with the Palestinians, and I believe that Abu Mazen is serious in his will to do so. The fact that there are differences is normal. We all have to understand that we don't have unlimited time and to understand that the wrong decision is irreversible. We have opportunity to make the right decision which is two states solution, a Jewish state called Israel and an Arab state called Palestine. I know you share the feeling of the weight of the decision."
Quartet Representative Tony Blair expressed his support for President Peres' statement and added, "I believe this is a profound moment for the opportunity to make peace, I hope on all sides there is the courage, vision and determination to move forward. We will continue to work very hard to put alongside the political process the economic initiative to improve the lives of people on the ground to give them hope and a stake in the future. It can be done and it should be done but it needs a political wind behind it. We're all striving very hard and particularly with all the turmoil this is the right moment to create out of this part of the Middle East some sense of hope based on the principles of societies that are open-minded and tolerant and economies that are modern and offer opportunity for our young people."