Brown: Mideast peace deal may come 'quickly'

PEACE DEAL: Brown (pictured) said a settlement could come quickly if the circumstances were right. (AFP)

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Tuesday he believed that a Middle East peace settlement could come about "quickly" if the circumstances were right.

Asked if a settlement could be negotiated soon, he told Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television: "I think that's possible, I think people understand how it can happen... We know that very detailed negotiations have taken place over the last few months."

Brown was speaking on the last day of a Gulf tour which has seen him hold talks with regional leaders including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.

"We know that the political situation at the moment has made it difficult for this to be brought to a conclusion but I think that given people understand not only the importance but how a solution would look, I think it's possible with the right circumstances to move quickly to a settlement," he said.

Israel and the Palestinians relaunched US-backed peace talks almost a year ago but they have made little visible progress since and the prospects of a deal have been further clouded with Israel facing a general election in February.

"In the whole region it is important to the stability of the region that we have a Middle East peace settlement between Palestinians and Israel... that is key to the future stability of the region and the world," Brown added.

He said the international community needed to make the peace process a "priority".

He later told journalists: "All the building blocks [are] in place so that a settlement could be reached if we could find the right environment in which it could happen."

Members of the so-called international peace Quartet - the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States - are meeting in Egypt at the weekend to discuss the status of Middle East peacemaking.

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READERS' COMMENTS

Peace deal or piece deal ?
Posted by Obelix, Dubai, UAE on Wednesday 5 November 2008 at 09:55 UAE time


Considering that he was here with a begging bowl to help ease the financial crisis, maybe everyone should walk the talk about PEACE in the middle east.

The money from the region can be used as a balm. Give money, force the UK and US to ensure PEACE for the Palestinans, get the US out of Iraq.

Food for thought eh ?

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