-Caveat Lector-
From
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/attacks/story/0,1320,584651,00.html
}}}>Begin
Blair gets a public lecture on the harsh realities of the Middle East
Syria's Assad humiliates PM with attack on west and Israel
Patrick Wintour in Riyadh
Thursday November 1, 2001
The Guardian
Tony Blair's drive to strengthen the anti-terrorist coalition and the
Middle East peace process yesterday suffered a very public rebuff at
the hands of the leader of Syria.
President Bashar al-Assad gave Mr Blair a dressing down, condemning
the bombing of Afghan civilians and praising Palestinian armed groups
as freedom fighters. The prime minister had to stand and listen as
the Israelis were described as state terrorists and the west was
accused of double standards and an inability to distinguish terrorism
from self-defence.
The diplomatic rebuff came at a joint press conference in Damascus
during which Mr Blair looked distinctly uneasy and pleaded for both
sides to bridge their "fundamental misunderstandings".
He was forced to describe their meeting as a "candid discussion",
diplomatic speak for a row, and at one point applause broke out in
the audience as the Syrian leader condemned the bombing of
Afghanistan.
Mr Blair will seek to restore the momentum of his Middle East tour today when he holds
talks with the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, in Jerusalem and then with the
Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat.
The chasm between the west and Muslim states over the definition of terrorism and the
role of Israel showed the daunting scale of Mr Blair's mission, however.
President Assad told the press conference the military action in Afghanistan was
mistaken. "We cannot accept what we see every day on our television screens - the
killing of innocent civilians. There are hundreds dying ev
ery day."
He condemned terrorists, he said, "but we should differentiate between combating
terrorism and war. We did not say we support an international coalition for war. We
are always against war."
The US and Britain have for many years been concerned about Syria's support for armed
militant groups fighting Israel - including Hizbullah, Hamas and the Popular Front for
the Liberation of Palestine. Mr Assad defined th
ese groups as freedom fighters. "We, and I personally, differentiate between
resistance and terrorism. Resistance is a social, religious and legal right that is
safeguarded by UN resolutions."
Likening the Palestinian groups to resistance fighters seeking to liberate their
lands, he argued that in Europe the great symbol of resistance had been De Gaulle.
"Can anyone accuse De Gaulle of being a terrorist? No way
."
He then turned his ire on Israel: "Israel is proving every day it is against peace,
and the desire for peace cannot co-exist with a desire for killing. The list of
assassinations cannot be an expression of a desire to bri
ng peace and stability in the region. Israel is practising state terrorism every day."
He accused the west of reducing terrorism to the personality of Osama bin Laden.
"Terrorism works as a network. It does not have a certain head, either as a person or
in terms of an organisation."
The British delegation remained hopeful that Mr Assad, eager to join the international
community after decades of isolation, will still use his influence to restrain the
Palestinian hardliners. Mr Blair himself said later
in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: "There was a far greater understanding than might have
appeared at the time."
The British recognise Mr Assad had a domestic audience to address and claimed that in
private he had been more conciliatory. The British pointed to his private acceptance
of the right of Israel to exist, as well as his co
ndemnation of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Mr Blair later told friends: "I was saying to him, you have to help to renew the
Middle East peace process. He was saying to me, if you want moderate Islam to defeat
Islamic fundamentalists, I also need your help."
Mr Assad pointed out that Syria had been calling since 1985 for an international
conference to combat terrorism, and that the west had come to the subject late -
though "better late than never", he said.
Mr Blair argued that Northern Ireland showed that a peace process
would work only if there was an end to violence by all sides. The two
fixed principles for peace in the Middle East were "Israel's right to
exist, confident of its own peace and security within its borders",
and a Palestinian state.
Mr Blair later flew to Saudi Arabia for talks with Crown Prince
Abdullah in Riyadh. On the way to his overnight stopover in Jordan,
the Prime Minister's spokesman accepted that he had won no direct
support in Saudi Arabia for the bombing campaign. He said there had
been unanimous condemnation of the terrorist attacks and the need to
end terrorism. But he went on: "Of course there was discussion about
the means. People come with different perspectives."
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
From
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/attacks/story/0,1320,584591,00.html
}}}>Begin
Diplomacy
How Blair's Syria gamble failed
Attempt to rein in 'rogue state' proves disastrous
Ewen MacAskill and Patrick Wintour in Damascus
Thursday November 1, 2001
The Guardian
Tony Blair visited the tomb said to contain the head of John the
Baptist which is housed in the main mosque of Damascus's Old City. He
might look back on it as an omen: hours later it was Mr Blair's head
that was being served up on a plate.
Downing Street officials had not expected much in the way of results
from Mr Blair's first meeting with the young Syrian leader, Bashar al-
Assad. But they did not anticipate that Mr Assad would reject Mr
Blair's overtures in such a public and abrupt way.
Mr Assad, dispensing with the usual diplomatic niceties, used a joint
press conference to rebuff Mr Blair over the bombing of Afghanistan
and Syria's policy of providing a haven to anti-Israeli groups
classified by both the US and Britain as terrorists.
Diplomatically, it was a disaster. Mr Blair has not looked as
uncomfortable in the presence of a foreign leader since an outburst
on Chechnya by the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, during a joint
press conference in London last year.
Both Downing Street and the Foreign Office knew beforehand that Mr
Blair was taking a risk in going to Syria, a country that is a
dictatorship with an abysmal human rights record, and which is still
engaged in fighting Israel by proxy.
The decision was influenced mainly by a trip made to Syria a
fortnight ago by Lord Powell, Lady Thatcher's former foreign affairs
adviser. The recommendation to the prime minister was that Syria was
ready to come in from the cold and that he should go.
It now looks a blunder. The Syria trip joins the list of growing
diplomatic setbacks since Mr Blair and the foreign secretary, Jack
Straw, embarked on a series of whirlwind tours after the September 11
attacks. Mr Straw ran into trouble in Iran and Israel and Mr Blair
was snubbed by Saudi Arabia two weeks ago.
Mr Blair might have hoped for better from Mr Assad, who was being
educated in Britain last year when his father died and he was called
home to take over, and whose wife is British.
But Syria represents the contradiction at the heart of George Bush's
worldwide war against terrorism. Syria provides a home and cash for
groups such as Hizbullah, one of the most disciplined and powerful
groups of fighters in the Middle East, which forced Israel to leave
the Lebanon and which continues to snipe at Israel along its border.
Until this year Damascus had also been the headquarters of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and still provides a
haven for its members. The PFLP assassinated an Israeli cabinet
minister a fortnight ago.
During his discussion with Mr Blair in private, Mr Assad argued that
these groups had a legitimate right to fight Israel. Giving the
impression his hands were tied, Mr Assad said that he had to listen
to the Arab street just as Mr Blair had to listen to his "street".
But in the press conference, Mr Assad was much more outspoken and
less emollient than Downing Street had been prepared for. He won
applause from Syrian reporters for condemning the bombing of
Afghanistan and reiterated that resis tance on the part of the anti-
Israeli groups was legitimate.
The Foreign Office would have told Mr Blair the visit was high risk.
Mr Assad is no respecter of visitors: he used a press conference in
Damascus in May to mark the Pope's visit to engage in an anti-semitic
rant, which left the Pontiff embarrassed.
Vulnerable president
Hopes that Mr Assad would turn out to be a reformer after the tough
dictatorship of his father have so far been misplaced. He is in a
vulnerable position, surrounded by vested interests, unable to make
the compromises that would bring reform. Political opponents,
journalists and others are regularly thrown into jail.
He is too weak to negotiate a peace settlement with Israel, which
still occupies Syria's Golan Heights from the 1967 war.
A Foreign Office source, making the most of the visit, said: "We were
not going to brush the differences under the carpet. We want to have
a debate with them about what constitutes terrorism."
Mr Blair had twin objectives: one was to look for a way of weaning
Syria away from its support for Hizbullah and other groups, and the
other was to try to get Syria to re-enter talks with Israel on the
return of the Golan Heights. He secured neither.
Since Labour came to power, Britain has been pursuing a commendable
policy of trying to bring the so-called "rogue states" or "states of
concern" into the in ternational community. In contrast to the United
States, it has restored diplomatic ties with Libya and Iran. Opening
up a good relationship with Syria was the next obvious step.
Downing Street and the Foreign Office shrugged yesterday at the
suggestion that the visit had been a mistake and insisted that the
test of whether the trip was worthwhile remained to be decided. If
the visit marked the start of a dialogue between Syria and Britain,
it would have been worthwhile.
Even though the visit will not ease his talks with the Israeli prime
minister, Ariel Sharon, today, Mr Blair concluded: "You can either
stay out of the dialogue, or you can try to get into it and build a
bridge of understanding for the future."
Guardian Unlimited � Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001
End<{{{
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