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Hello Tony!.....Where have you been?

"As he gets to grips with the extent of his task as a peace envoy, the former prime minister is said to be astonished and appalled by life in the West Bank."

So heads a piece in The Guardian. It seems that Blair, appointed by the Quartet peacemakers to help mediate a settlement in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, is bereft of any knowledge about what is happening on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza - and Israel's actions as part of the occupation.

"Blair was really astonished and angry," says the UN official who gave him a presentation on the devastating effects of Israel's "security barrier", settlements, checkpoints, and closures on the lives of Palestinians in the occupied territories. "He asked very smart questions, though I did think that someone who was prime minister for so long should already have known these facts."

Read the full piece here.

Meanwhile, the BBC reports:

"A top UN expert has said he will urge the world body to withdraw from the Quartet of Middle East mediators unless it addresses Palestinian human rights.

John Dugard, the UN human rights envoy for the Palestinian Territories, told the BBC the US, EU, UN and Russia were failing to protect the Palestinians.

He said the UN "does itself little good by remaining a member of the Quartet".

In his role as a UN special rapporteur, Mr Dugard has been visiting the West Bank and Gaza for the past seven years.

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the UN Human Rights Council.

They are advisers and do not decide UN policy.

"Every time I visit, the situation seems to have worsened," he said in a BBC interview."

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