Downing Street Says » Middle East

Asked if the Prime Minister had been thinking of any countries in particular when he said that one of the things that had improved in the Middle East in the past 3 years was the spread of democracy, the PMOS replied that in some of the Gulf States the vote had been opened up to women for the first time. He added that in Iraq there had been elections for the first time on three occasions, in which millions of people participated. On the basis that it is good that people are able to vote for their government, then this was an advance.

Asked what he would say to anyone forming an impression watching the Prime Minister, observing his demeanour and body language, that he was bored and had lost interest, only motivated by the Middle East and that perhaps he was considering leaving the stage rather earlier than people had predicted, the PMOS pointed the journalist to the agenda on the domestic front as announced in the Queen’s speech. Whether it was energy, pensions, or health, they would see that this was an active agenda in which the Prime Minister had been instrumental in devising and pushing through. He added that for the Prime Minister, the Middle East is the core of the argument of how we start to try and resolve the battle with extremism in the terms of taking away the pressure points that extremists use in their battle of ideas. Therefore the Middle East was not a light subject to pick up. What the Prime Minister was doing at home and overseas was facing up to the main challenges that face the world in an era of globalisation and therefore directly impact on the people of this country.

Asked whether the Prime Minister was frustrated that with the best will in the world, he would be unable to complete anything significant in the Middle East in his remaining time in office, the PMOS replied that the important thing was to inject momentum. If the status quo was left, the only certain thing was that life would get worse. The Prime Minister’s view was that if he did get momentum going in the right direction, things could move relatively quickly and it was therefore unwise to speculate about timescales.

Asked whether he could add anything to the Prime Minister’s comments on the flexibility of the Quartet principles, the PMOS replied that what had been said when they were last in the Middle East was that we were prepared to talk to a National Unity Government as long as they recognised the Quartet’s principles, even if individual parties within that government didn’t share that exact position. That was one sign of flexibility. What we would now have to see was where President Abbas’s assessment was of the chances of the National Unity Government moving forward, this was partly the purpose of the trip. In terms of what would be available to the Palestinians, there was the EU aid and therefore the willingness to help them on a wide range of fronts, training security forces, building up infrastructure and so on. These are matters that need to be placed in a political process, there was no point in placing them in the middle of a vacuum.

Asked what the Prime Minister was referring to when he had said that on the trip he would make clear to the Palestinians what they would expect in return for recognising Israel, the PMOS suggested that they discuss conclusions at the end of the trip.

3 Comments »

Here’s some more ‘spreading democracy’ going on in Afghanistan:

http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db900SID/VBOL-6WEJBV?OpenDocument
Comment by Brian — 13 Dec 2006 on 11:32 am | Link
These people are ‘avin’ a larf, int they?! Spread of democracy?! How gullible do you have to be to believe that load of old pony?

"PMOS replied that the important thing was to inject momentum"

No, you utter twat. The important thing is to achieve things, not to think up ever more sophisticated ways of doing fuck-all. "Inject momentum"??? What does that MEAN??!!

"Asked what the Prime Minister was referring to when he had said that on the trip he would make clear to the Palestinians what they would expect in return for recognising Israel, the PMOS suggested that they discuss conclusions at the end of the trip." Basically, they can expect fuck-all except more lying rhetoric that it is in fact Palestine that refuses to recognise Israel, instead of the truth of the matter, which is the other way around. It is, and has consistently been, ISRAEL that refuses to recognise Palestine, and that will continue to be the case because the UK and the USA are governed by supporters of Zionism who have no interest in seeing a true Two-State Solution. This has been the case since at least Winston Churchill to my knowledge; for example Maggie Thatcher was warned by the FO to sever some of her ties to overtly Zionist organisations, for fear her anti-Arab bias would be too obvious.

Of course, the majority of the great unwashed sheeple of this country and the USA still believe the media bullshit about it being Palestine that is the aggressor – purely because the sheeple are, in the main, too stupid, too lazy, and, like true sheep, too easily led to find out the facts for themselves. And of course, when one tries to point out the truth to them, their most common response is "conspiracy theory", thus demonstrating again the depths of their brainwashing.
Comment by SmokeNMirrors — 13 Dec 2006 on 3:01 pm | Link
Amen, brother. All we like sheep have gone astray. I think George Friedrich Handel said that.
Comment by tasty macfadden — 13 Dec 2006 on 8:31 pm | Link

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» Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Middle East

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