Tony Blair in action

The Quartet of Middle East mediators met for the first time with Tony Blair as special envoy at a meeting Washington hopes will breathe some life into the stagnant Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The Quartet meeting is the first since Hamas Islamists seized control of the Gaza Strip from U.S.-backed President Mahmoud Abbas's forces last month and since the former British prime minister was named as its envoy. The group, including the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, is expected to endorse U.S. efforts to restart long-frozen negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians on ending decades of conflict.