Independent Online Edition > Middle East > Blair backs Abbas plan amid Gaza violence

Independent Online Edition > Middle East > Blair backs Abbas plan amid Gaza violence: "Tony Blair launched an effort yesterday to secure international backing for the Palestinian President's high-risk plan to call fresh elections in the hope of dislodging Hamas from political power and lifting the Western blockade of Gaza and the West Bank.

Mr Blair went out of his way to praise President Mahmoud Abbas's 'landmark' announcement of the plan as the ceasefire between Hamas and the president's rival Fatah group came under renewed strain in a still-tense Gaza Strip with sporadic kidnappings and exchanges of gunfire.

In the most high profile kidnapping in the Gaza Strip so far, a senior Fatah official, the former prisoners minister Sufian Abu Zaydeh, was snatched by presumed Hamas militants." Read complete post here.