Posted on 01/06/2003 8:26:34 AM PST by RCW2001
6 January 2003 14:34
JERUSALEM, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A diplomatic row broke out between Israel and Britain on Monday over an Israeli decision to bar Palestinians from attending talks on Middle East peace after suicide bombers killed 22 people in Tel Aviv.
Israel's hawkish Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sparred in a telephone call in which Netanyahu rejected Britain's request to reconsider the ban, a transcript provided by Israel's Foreign Ministry showed.
Both men were quoted as accusing each other's government of creating a situation not conducive to peace.
Britain had invited top Palestinian officials to London for a January 14 talks with members of the Quartet of Middle East mediators, to discuss peace and Palestinian Authority reforms demanded by Washington as a condition for statehood.
But after a double Palestinian suicide bombing in Tel Aviv on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's cabinet said it would bar the Palestinian delegation from attending the talks.
"It must be in the interests of all sides in this conflict for Palestinians to have to address the key issues of reform to the security sector," Straw said in London after the telephone call in which he asked Israel to reconsider.
VERBAL SPARRING
Netanyahu, according to his office, told Straw that the attack ruled out "business as usual" and urged Britain to adopt U.S. President Bush's position "that leaders compromised by terror cannot be partners for peace."
"You in Britain are doing the exact opposite," Netanyahu was quoted as telling Straw.
"No, it is Israel that is doing the opposite," Straw said, according to the Israeli statement. "Instead of concentrating on dealing with terrorism, it is striking at (Palestinian) delegates."
Netanyahu countered by accusing the Palestinian Authority of doing nothing to prevent suicide attacks and saying President Yasser Arafat was even encouraging the bombings -- allegations which Palestinian officials have always denied.
Netanyahu is the leading hawk in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's right-wing Likud party and has staked out positions even tougher than his boss -- including demanding Arafat's expulsion -- for combating a 27-month-old Palestinian uprising for independence.
Signs of British displeasure with Israel were evident even before the phone call, when Straw voiced disappointment that Israel had not directly informed him of its decision.
"We only heard the news this morning, I regret to say, on the radio," he said on the BBC. "It is important these people are able to travel and that we are able to engage in a process of reform."
Palestinian delegates agreed last month to take up an offer from British Prime Minister Tony Blair to meet in London in a bid to break the deadlock in Middle East peacemaking after 27 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Blair has set great personal store behind refloating the process since touring Middle Eastern capitals in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks on the U.S., when he was left in no doubt about the strength of Arab feelings on the issue. But he has stopped short of saying a possible war on Iraq would require progress between Israelis and Palestinians first.
In his New Year message last week, Blair declared that world leaders must press on with the Middle East peace process, whatever the problems. "Otherwise we are guilty of the very double standards we are accused of," he said.
Personal relations between Straw and Netanyahu are strained.
Last month, a planned joint news conference in London was scrapped after Britain announced it wanted to hold a conference with Palestinian leaders and Blair entertained Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Straw said the conference would go ahead although maybe not next week as planned. ((Reporting by Gwen Ackerman and Mike Peacock; Editing by Sami Aboudi; Reuters Messaging: gwen.ackerman.reuters.com@reuters.net; +972-2-5370502))
The delegates are the terrorists, you moron.
It is an interesting issue in itself. Straw must be supporting terrorists indeed.
No words nor grandstanding nor weaponry will win against truth, and no body will ever evoke a proseltyzed adoration of it.
Hopefully there won't be any. Peace talks for the Arab side have always been simply a ploy to get Israel to make concessions, while they persue their ultimate goal of eliminating the state of Israel, and killing every Jew in the middle east. They are worse than futile, they are dangerous.
After they organized a vomit show of welcome for Assad whose country's a hizballaland they are guilty of the very double standards they're accused of and the accusation stays.
British cows are advised to excercise caution with the jack straw brand
Blah. There were envoys from palistan before and no chances for peace.
The Palestinian future is as viable an issue as is Israel’s future.
Yup. Israel should consider the increase of dangers to it's future with the formation of the palistanian state.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.