London  - Former British prime minister and current international Quartet envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair has said in a newspaper interview published on Saturday that the militant Palestinian movement Hamas must be brought into the peace process.

Blair, in an interview with The Times, said that the previous policy pursued by the Quartet - the UN, US, Russia and the EU - of isolating Hamas and concentrating peace and reconciliation efforts on the West Bank "was never going to work and will never work."

London, Jan. 31 : Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has admitted that his barrister wife Cherie is cleverer than him but has been insecure about her working class background.

The former Labour leader said his wife, who was one of the youngest QCs in the country at the age of 40, was "streets ahead of him in "brain power".

London, Jan. 30 : Former British Prime Minister and now Middle East envoy for the Quartet group of the US, UN, EU and Russia, Tony Blair, has revealed that he still agonizes over his decision to go to war against Iraq.

When he was asked whether he felt vindicated by his decision, Blair said: "I don''t know. Nobody knows. But of course I reflect on it, and am troubled by it, and feel a great sense of responsibility for it".

London - International envoy to the Middle East Tony Blair emphasized the continued need to move toward a two-state solution in order to maintain the peace in Gaza, in a Sunday interview with the BBC.

Blair, a former British prime minister, said that there needed to be "a truly credible process" for establishing the two states.

"Even the short-term is fragile and the long-term sustainability of this depends absolutely and intimately on re-vitalising the whole of the peace process," he told BBC Radio
4's The World This Weekend.

Washington  - Former British prime minister Tony Blair, the top Mideast envoy for a consortium of world powers, expressed full support Tuesday for Egypt's role in mediating the Gaza conflict between Israel and the Palestinian militant movement Hamas.

In an interview with broadcaster CNN, Blair said that the most important goal was to come up with "a credible plan to stop the smuggling" of weapons from Egypt into Gaza to Hamas militants.

Washington, Jan. 13 (ANI): Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will received the United States''s highest civil award - the Congressional Gold Medal of Honour, at a ceremony here today.

President George W Bush will bestow the honour in recognition of the ex-premier''s work to "improve the lives of citizens" and for his effort to promote "democracy, human rights and peace abroad".

That award was received during the height of the Iraq War debate, leading to suggestions that Blair was reluctant to accept it over concerns of being seen as a "poodle" of the United States.