Downing Street Says » Middle East

Asked for a reaction to a letter from fifty two former diplomats criticising the Prime Minister’s Middle East policy, the PMOS said that we were aware of the letter and would reply in due course. Obviously, as former members of the diplomatic corps, they were entitled to their views. However, our objectives in Iraq and on the Israeli/Palestinian question remained stability, peace and freedom. As both the Prime Minister and President Bush had made clear in their joint press conference in Washington recently, we remained committed to a two-state solution. President Bush was the first US President to support such a policy, as envisaged by the roadmap – a secure Israel and a viable Palestinian state existing side by side in peace. The Israeli offer to withdraw from Gaza and parts of the West Bank provided an opportunity to get back to the roadmap after months of limited progress. Both we and the US had also made it clear that we had not pre-judged any final status issues, which obviously had to be resolved through negotiation. On Iraq, we presumed that the fifty two former diplomats welcomed the removal of Saddam, as it was that which had opened up the possibility of democracy in the country. We were determined to achieve democracy working with the Iraqis themselves, because in the end they were the ones who would operate it.

Asked if it was the role of former diplomats to write open letters to the Prime Minister, the PMOS said that they were free citizens and it was entirely their right to do so. Equally, it was our right to state the aim of Government policy. On Iraq, that was to build on the opportunity that the removal of Saddam had provided for a more peaceful, stable and democratic country in which the Iraqi people were able to put behind them the horrors of the past. On the Middle East, our aim was to build on the real possibility of a two-state solution.

Asked for a reaction to the diplomats’ criticisms that the Coalition had not prepared sufficiently well for the aftermath of Saddam’s deposition, the PMOS said that we would disagree with the suggestion. Of course no one was pretending that we were not facing difficulties in Iraq. We were. However, given the state of Iraq before the war when two thirds of the Iraqi population had been dependent on UN food aid, such was the level to which Saddam had reduced the economy, the predictions of famine post-war had clearly not come to pass. That was not only a result of the planning before the conflict, but the action that had been taken since then. For example, Iraq had a better infrastructure today than it had had pre-war, despite all the difficulties posed by the terrorist attacks.

Asked to comment on the criticism that the Prime Minister could have been more influential in shaping the policies of President Bush, the PMOS said that as the Prime Minister himself had underlined, he rejected the idea that there was a scorecard for British objectives and US objectives. Britain’s objectives were a democracy in Iraq and a two-state solution in the Middle East. We would work with our allies, including the US, to achieve them.

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» Monday, April 26, 2004

Middle East

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