Envoy Blair given $1m prize
By politics.co.uk staff
Former prime minister Tony Blair spent yesterday evening accepting a $1 million prize for his work as a Middle East envoy.
Since standing down after ten years in Downing Street two years ago Mr Blair has been the envoy of the Quartet – the EU, US, Russia and UN – working to promote peace in the Middle East.
For his contribution he was presented the $1 million (£656,000) Dan David prize for leadership by Israeli president Shimon Peres at a ceremony at Tel Aviv university.
The prize is awarded for “achievements having an outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social impact on our world”.
Other winners of the $1 million prize this year were Aids virus co-discoverer Professor Robert Gallo and Professor Paulo de Bernardis, a leading physicist at the University La Sapienza in Rome
Ninety per cent of the prize money will be donated to the Tony Blair faith foundation which promotes better religious understanding, the ex-PM’s office said.
