Blair Must Seize Peace Opportunity For Middle East

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Thu 14th Oct 2004

At Prime Ministers Questions today, Liberal Democrat International Development Spokesman Tom Brake called on the Prime Minister to take urgent action to get the Middle East peace process back on track.

Tom Brake asked the Prime Minister,

"At the Labour Party Conference, a couple of weeks ago, the PM stated that 'After November, I will make the revival of the Middle East Peace Process a personal priority.' Yesterday, an 11 year old Palestinian girl was shot and critically wounded in Gaza. Around 100 palestinians and many Israelis have died during this latest offensive. And Israel are apparently in the process of buying bunker busters, with Iran's nuclear installations likely to be the intended target. Does the PM believe the Palestinian and Israeli people can wait until after November's US Presidential Elections for the Peace Process to be revived?"