Downing Street Says » Middle East

Asked for further information about the evacuation plans from Lebanon, the PMOS said that we had evacuated 63 of the most vulnerable British nationals yesterday using the three helicopters that we had brought Javier Solana in on. We had six ships either in the region, or heading for the region, with the first evacuation by ship was planned for later today. The PMOS said that we were not giving details of timings or even numbers at this stage because of the security situation on the ground. We had deployed rapid deployment teams from the FCO who specialised in this sort of operation to both Beirut and to Cyprus at either end of the evacuation route. We believed that we had put together an evacuation plan, and we were in touch with people on the ground. The advice at the moment to British nationals was to stay in touch with the embassy, and maintain a low profile where possible.

Asked if this was the start of a mass evacuation, and would there be thousands of people being evacuated, the PMOS replied that it would depend on the decisions of individual British nationals in Lebanon. The PMOS said that it was better that the British embassy in Beirut was the source of information on it. We were avoiding speculating about numbers because of the obvious security situation on the ground, and that was the right thing to do.

Asked if we were able to evacuate everyone who wanted to be evacuated, the PMOS replied that we were putting in place the necessary plans to deal with those who wanted to be evacuated, as not everybody wanted to be.

Asked to comment that we had been very slow to evacuate people compared to the French, the PMOS said that we did get 63 people out yesterday, and we would get more out today. This was a plan that was being treated with an increasing degree of urgency. It was important that we did this in a calm, serious way, as it was not a race, but rather, it was getting those who wanted to leave out in the fastest and safest time. We judged the safest way to be by sea, but it was a complex situation that was being handled on the ground. Others would do it in their own way, but the important thing was that we did it in the safest possible way.

Put that the Prime Minister had spoken about a possible air bridge, and had that now been ruled out, the PMOS said that the air bridge the Prime Minister had talked about was getting the helicopters in and getting the people out. We did that. We would continue to look at every option, but the sea was the safest way to get large numbers of people out.

Asked where the helicopters had gone to, the PMOS said that they had gone to Cyprus.

Asked if the Prime Minister had any plans to visit the region, the PMOS replied that the "overheard" conversation between the Prime Minister and President Bush at the G8 should be placed in some context. The Prime Minister believed that the important thing was that we moved with urgency on the diplomatic front. As the Prime Minister had said this morning and yesterday, we could all call for a ceasefire, but unless we created the conditions that were necessary for a ceasefire, it would not happen. We had to be realistic about that.

What the Prime Minister was doing at the G8, and he was the one who had negotiated the G8 statement on the Middle East with President Putin, was holding a serious conversation to ensure that the diplomatic effort went ahead as urgently as possible. That was what the Prime Minister was talking about in terms of his conversation with President Bush. What was important now was that Dr. Rice was going to visit the region. What was also important, however, was that the G8 had come up with a proposal of the international monitoring force, and the stabilisation force.

That was why the Prime Minister’s meeting with Kofi Annan was so important. Kofi Annan was taking that forward, and he was meeting President Barosso, and we would hear the results of Kofi Annan’s representative at the UN on Thursday. The PMOS said that there was a dynamic, diplomatic process going forward, and we obviously wanted to move that process forward as urgently as possible to restore calm to the situation. As the Prime Minister had stressed, calm would not be restored unless the conditions that were necessary for that calm were met. That was set out in detail in the G8 statement.

Asked if, therefore, that meant the Prime Minister was going to visit the region, the PMOS said that the important thing was that the diplomatic effort went forward. In conversation with President Bush, they were discussing about Dr. Rice going, therefore we did not need to duplicate that effort. The Prime Minister remained very closely involved, as he would be speaking to other people in the region later today, and yesterday he had spoken again to Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon. The PMOS said that he would update people as and when.

Put that it was clear the Government believed that Syria and Iran were the ones "pulling strings", but was Iran a cause for greater concern, the PMOS replied that we all knew that Hezbollah had headquarters in Damascus, and we all knew the Syrian links to Hezbollah. We equally knew that weaponry was being supplied from both Iran and Syria. The PMOS said that what he had said last week still applied: we had been looking at all countries in the region to play their part in calming this situation down. We had to keep pressing for that. The PMOS added that the Foreign Secretary was in regular touch with her Israeli counterpart and others in the regions as well.

Asked if there were plans to call in their Ambassadors, the PMOS said that he was not aware there were plans to do so, but both Iran and Syria were aware of our views.

Asked if there was a strong security threat to our convoys, and if so, where did it come from, the PMOS replied that he did not want to get into speculation about it. It was a statement of the obvious that in a situation as volatile and as difficult as this was, the safety of convoys had to be ensured. The personnel had to be kept safe, and it was obvious that that meant negotiations had to take place to ensure that things were as safe as possible.

Asked if we were getting full co-operation from Lebanon and Israel, the PMOS said that we were in discussions with people from both sides, and we would continue to do so.

Asked about the capacity of the boats, the PMOS said that he did not want to get involved as people would make guesstimates about numbers.

Put that there appeared to be a cool response to the stabilisation force idea, the PMOS replied that he was mystified by the idea that there was a cool response. It was in the G8 statement which was agreed by all G8 leaders. The rest of the old G7 did mandate the Prime Ministers to negotiate on their behalf about a stabilisation force with President Putin. That produced a G8 statement. Kofi Annan yesterday represented the world community, and warmly accepted the idea of a stabilisation force. The PMOS said therefore, it was a warm reception for the idea. What we had to do was turn it into reality, and that would be largely down to the UN, but people could take it that there were intense efforts going on behind the scenes to make that transition.

Asked if we had a view about whether Israeli ground troops should go into Lebanon, the PMOS said that he was not going to give a running commentary on what should or should not happen on the ground. What we had called for was for utter restraint, and we had emphasised that. What the Prime Minister had said was that it was a statement of the obvious that we wanted to see an end to this conflict as soon as possible. However, saying that, we had to be realistic, as it did not bring it about. Rather, what brought it about was meeting the conditions that the G8 had set out.

The soldiers did need to be released, and there did need to be an end to the rockets being fired in. There also needed to be the requisite actions on the Israeli side as well. That was what the situation was, and it was not simply the case of saying that there had to be a ceasefire . We agreed with Kofi Annan that everybody should do everything they could to avoid civilian casualties. We also had to recognise that there were broader issues at stake, and we had to address those.

Asked what criteria there was for people going out on the first ship, the PMOS replied that he was leaving that information up to the embassy in Beirut.

Put that they might be quite busy, the PMOS said that equally, they would be the ones who judged, and the PMOS was not going to get into second guessing them.

Asked what sort of boats would be going in, and were they Destroyers, the PMOS replied again that the safest thing was that we briefed after the event.

Asked why we won’t condemn Israeli action, the PMOS said that what people had to recognise was as the G8 had set out very clearly, how and why this crisis had developed. It had developed from firstly the killing and seizure of an Israeli soldier in Gaza. Secondly, there was the seizure of further soldiers by Hezbollah and the launching of rockets from Lebanon into Israel. That was the start of this process. What we equally had to recognise was that as Israel had set out, what it needed was to live in security and in a situation where there were not rockets coming in from outside and there was stability. Equally, we believed that Israeli actions should be proportionate, and we also believed that we did not want a situation where Israeli forces were beyond their territory. To create the situation for that to happen was more important than talking about condemning people, and we had to be realistically hard-headed about how we approached it.

Asked that although Dr. Rice was going, could we not categorically rule out that the Prime Minister would go to visit the region, the PMOS said again that the current plans were that Dr. Rice was going and that had been confirmed by the US. Therefore, in terms of the conversation that the Prime Minister and President Bush had, the need for someone to go to the region had been addressed.

1 Comment »

Just wait for something to happen to one of those ships, loaded with civilians, which will be blamed on Iran. I’ll actually be surprised if they escape unscathed…
Comment by SmokeNMirrors — 18 Jul 2006 on 11:47 pm | Link

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» Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Middle East

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