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Netanyahu, Blair discuss gestures ahead of Quartet meeting

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Middle East Quartet Envoy Tony Blair yesterday evening to discuss a series of Israeli steps aimed at improving the Palestinian economy. Netanyahu’s meeting with Blair, the third in three weeks, came ahead of a high-level Quartet meeting scheduled to take place in Munich on Saturday.

Netanyahu expressed his intention to help the Palestinian economy grow in the Knesset on Wednesday, “in the next few days, I plan to take additional steps to further encourage development and prosperity among the Palestinians.” Netanyahu added that Israel had made a great effort to boost the Palestinian economy because it wanted to negotiate with them and reach a peace agreement.

In his speech Netanyahu also addressed the upheaval in Egypt. “We expect any government of Egypt to honor the peace,” he said. “Moreover, we expect the international community to expect any government of Egypt to honor the peace. This must be clear, along with the discussions about reform and democracy.”

The Quartet meeting will be the highest level meeting of the group since last September and will take place on the sidelines of a three day conference on security policy. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and Quartet envoy Tony Blair are expected to attend.