Foreign Ministry slams British PM's linkage of Iraq, Intifada

Jerusalem Post ^ | Mar. 26, 2003 | DOUGLAS DAVIS

[yonif]

Officials in the Foreign Ministry voiced criticism statements made by British Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday they said created 'linkage' between the situation in Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The officials said this so-called linkage was wrong. They were referring to statement made by Blair earlier Wednesday, that the United States and its allies must now broaden their agenda beyond Iraq and help build peace in the Middle East and across the globe.

Both Blair and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw drew a clear connection between the war in Iraq and progress on the Israeli and Palestinian track.

Straw told the BBC that the West was hypocritical not to demand the same sort of adherence to UN Security Council resolutions from the Israelis and Palestinians as it does from Iraq.

Straw added that he believed there is a "double standard" in enforcing UN resolutions and he understood Arab concern about what he described as "injustice against the Palestinians."

"There is a real concern . . . that the West has been guilty of double standards - on the one hand saying the UN Security Council resolutions on Iraq must be implemented, on the other hand, sometimes appearing rather quixotic over the implementation of resolutions about Israel and Palestine."

Asked if he pleaded guilty to double standards, Straw, who is accompanying Blair to the US, replied: "To a degree yes . . . and we're going to deal with it."

Echoing the theme, Blair said he understood that there was "a great deal of cynicism and skepticism within the Muslim and Arab worlds" about his stated determination to publish the "roadmap" and take the process forward.

He also understood, he said, the sense that they were "simply statements made in the context of military action in Iraq and then forgotten." But said Blair: "I can give my assurance that they will not be forgotten. They will be taken forward and they will be done."

Based on the conversations he has had with Bush, Blair said the American president "believes, like me, that this is a vital interest to resolve because it is probably the issue, more than anything else, that keeps the Arab and Muslim worlds and the Western world apart."

He added that, "as a simple matter of justice, people want to see a situation in which the Israeli citizens are protected from the appalling ravages of terrorism and Palestinians are able to live in their own viable state and make a decent living for themselves."

Regarding the divisions in opinion among NATO members regarding the war in Iraq, Blair rejected lawmakers' suggestions that Washington was solely to blame for fractures in the Atlantic alliance.

Blair faced questions in the House of Commons that underlined a persistent strain of skepticism in Britain about U.S. intentions in Iraq, the Middle East and in global diplomacy generally.

The prime minister, who has been Bush's staunchest ally in confronting Iraq, took oblique shots at France and other nations that had opposed military action.

"But I also think it is important that we make sure that we broaden the agenda that we present to the world, which is why I believe that issues like the Middle East peace process are also particularly at this moment important," he said.

Labor lawmaker Chris Bryant said many British people were "skeptical if not cynical about the U.S. position" in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He demanded an "unambiguous and definite date" for publishing the so-called road map of steps toward a settlement, and that Blair seek a U.S. commitment to a United Nations resolution on reconstruction in Iraq.

"I do believe ... that the commitment of the United States is there to making sure that the road map is not merely published but then carried through," Blair said.