Hillary Clinton had a meeting with Tony Blair on 11 February in his capacity as Middle East envoy of the 'Quartet', the group which comprises the US, the EU, Russia and the UN. She said Blair would 'intensify' his partnership with Senator George Mitchell, the US special envoy to the Middle East, to develop a future Palestinian state. Blair spoke of 'bottom-up change' and welcomed progress made in the West Bank. All this raises several interesting questions.