The Secretary met with Tony Blair today. These are their remarks before the meeting.
Remarks With Quartet Representative Tony Blair Before Their Meeting
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Treaty Room
Washington, DC
December 8, 2009
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, it’s a delight to welcome back to the State Department a friend and an extraordinary public advocate for so many good causes, Tony Blair. As you know, he is the representative from the Quartet in the Middle East and has been working very hard to improve the economic well-being of the Palestinians, to look for ways to enhance cooperation between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and we’re looking forward to catching up on the latest developments in the Middle East.
MR. BLAIR: Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be back here in the State Department. And I’d like to thank Secretary Clinton for welcoming me here, and to say that together, we will keep working along, of course, with Senator Mitchell, to do everything we can to make progress between the Israelis and the Palestinians. It’s a difficult moment right now – but then it always is – but we’re going to keep working on it very hard in order to try and bring about a change in circumstances that allow us to get into negotiations and make real progress.
Thank you.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Great. Thank you all very much.
