8 - 14 November 2001
Issue No.559
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 8 - 14 November 2001 Issue No.559 |
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Empty-handed both ways
British Prime Minister Tony Blair came to the region to win Arab support for the US war against Afghanistan. But with nothing to offer, he got nothing in return, writes Michael Jansen
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's recent tour of the region began on 30 October: the 10th anniversary of the Madrid Middle East peace conference. The coincidence was inauspicious. At Madrid, in exchange for joining the 1991 US-led war to drive Iraq from Kuwait, the Arabs were promised a peace based on Israel's evacuation of land occupied in 1967 and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. But the promises made at Madrid have yet to be delivered.
The US and its allies again need Arab help. Blair was touring the region to win Arab support for the US campaign against Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden, leaving many observers wondering what the United States and Britain promise in return this time.
The atmosphere was already sour when Blair arrived in Damascus on the first leg of his tour. The US had begun carpet-bombing Afghanistan; civilian casualties from "smart bombs" were rising. Washington had refused a Ramadan pause. The Israeli army remained in reoccupation of five Palestinian west bank areas.
Even Blair's warm-up act annoyed his hosts. The British prime minister arrived on the heels of Canadian Foreign Minister John Manley who angered the Syrian and Lebanese governments by rejecting the distinction between terrorism and resistance and called on his hosts to crack down on Lebanese and Palestinian movements battling Israeli occupation.
Blair, the first British head of government to visit Syria, arrived empty-handed. "We do not have a blueprint. We do not have any great initiative to launch," Blair told President Bashar Al-Assad. Blair said the framework for a resumption of negotiations between Palestinians and Israel was set out in the recommendations of the Mitchell Commission, unimplemented since last April. Nevertheless, Blair asked Al-Assad to curb the activities of Hizbullah and 11 Damascus-based Palestinian groups involved in the Intifada. Al-Assad rejected Blair's request and compared the Palestinian struggle against Israel to French resistance to the Nazi occupation. He also repeated Syria's condemnation of the attacks on the US.
In Al-Assad's view, the "war on terror" should not be conducted by one party but should be an international effort. Al-Assad said it was necessary to tackle the causes of international tension "to pull the rug out from under the terrorists."
Although Blair did reiterate Britain's support for a Palestinian state, he refused to define how or when this would be achieved. Instead, he parroted Israel's view that the Palestinian Authority and Israel could resume negotiations only after "a period of calm."
Tension between Blair and his hosts was evident during the news conference held at the end of Blair's visit to Damascus. This set the tone for Blair's subsequent encounters.
In Riyadh, Blair met King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdullah and Prince Sultan, the defence minister. They advised him to find "a quick solution" to the Palestinian state issue. Blair replied, "It is vital that we restart the peace process on the basis [of] security for Israel, and justice and equality of treatment for Palestinians."
In Amman, Jordan's King Abdullah stressed the centrality of Palestine. Blair stuck to three points which appeared to relegate Palestine to third place: the international community "needs to stand firm...against terrorism"; Islam "needs to make a firm stand against those extremists who have hijacked Islam"; and "goodwill is needed to [re]start the Middle East peace process."
Syrian analysts found the asymmetry of Blair's formulations striking. A Syrian analyst commented, "If Blair had been serious he would have said 'the international community needs to take a firm stand against the Israeli occupation.'"
Blair then arrived in Jerusalem on 2 November, the 84th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration. In 1917, the former British foreign secretary sent his famous letter to leaders of the Zionist movement, sympathising with their wish to establish a state for Jews in Palestine. This coincidence raised expectations among Palestinians that Blair might issue another historic declaration, this time confirming British support for an independent Palestinian state. But again the coincidence was inauspicious: and the Palestinians were left empty-handed.
On the contrary, Palestinians felt Blair's visit revealed pro-Israel bias when the British prime minister met the parents of three Israeli soldiers abducted a year ago by Lebanon's armed resistance group, Hizbullah.
During a news conference with Blair, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon launched a tirade against Syria, calling it a "country of terror... a centre of terror." Sharon strongly defended his policy of murdering Palestinian activists, claiming the assassinations were "self-defence." Instead of calling for a halt to the killings, Blair said, "I understand the pressures Prime Minister Sharon faces" because "the Israeli people see their people killed every day... The
peace process cannot succeed when people are engaging in acts of terrorism."
Blair's words failed to comfort the Arabs: during his tour the Israeli army killed eight Palestinians, two of them through assassination.
Blair also had nothing more than vague words to offer about a future Palestinian state. But he was more concrete when it came to admonishing the Palestinians. He told Palestinian leaders to "take charge of the situation" and arrest "extremists." Blair never, though, spoke publicly of the "occupation." Winding up his tour, Blair stood beside Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and spoke regretfully of the "gulf of misunderstanding between the Arab and Muslim world and the Western world." His own role in widening that gulf seemed to escape him.
The only outcome of the Blair tour was the hazy verbal link made between the creation (date unspecified) of a Palestinian state and the prosecution (immediate) of the anti-terror campaign. For Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa, this was not enough. Referring to pledges given in exchange for Arab support of the 1991 US- led war against Iraq, Moussa said, "We will not be duped a second time... We will not wait 10 more years, statements alone are not enough, they must be backed up [with concrete progress] on the ground."
Blair came, he saw the parlous situation in the region, he did nothing to conquer Arab fears of betrayal. And he departed without new Arab commitments to the "war on terror." Nothing, after all, comes of nothing.
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