ThisIsLondon.com Blair gets short shrift in Syria

Prime Minister Tony Blair has learned at first hand and in the bluntest of terms the extent of Arab anger over the bombing campaign against Afghanistan.

At the start of a bruising Middle East diplomatic mission, he stood next to President Bashar Assad as the Syrian leader denounced the raids for causing "hundreds" of civilian casualties - to applause from local officials and reporters.

It was Mr Blair's first face-to-face confrontation with the controversy caused by the US and UK campaign, although aides insisted later he had expected President Assad to restate his well-known hostility to the bombing.

Mr Blair acknowledged he had risked controversy by beginning his latest round of talks in Damascus, the capital of Syria, a state accused of harbouring some of the most extreme terror groups in the region.

The Prime Minister, the first British Premier to visit Damascus, said after the talks it had been a "difficult" visit, but was said privately to believe the dialogue had proved it could be possible to build "a bridge" to further discussions to restart the Middle East peace process.

Mr Blair later travelled to Saudi Arabia where he had talks in Riyadh with King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah.

Reports, officially denied, had said an earlier visit had been cancelled because the Saudis believed his presence in the capital could be inflammatory.

After the talks in Damascus, Mr Blair appealed for an end to violence from all quarters in the Middle East to give a fresh peace initiative a chance.

But President Assad launched his stinging condemnation of the allied bombing campaign and staunch defence of the groups fighting for the "liberation" of Palestine - also rebuking Israel for its "state terrorism".

Of the Afghanistan bombing campaign, he said: "We cannot accept what we see on our television every day of the bombing of innocent civilians. There are hundreds now every day."

-- Anonymous, October 31, 2001

Answers

UK Times

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 01 2001

Assad ambushes Blair

BY PHILIP WEBSTER IN RIYADH, CHRISTOPHER WALKER IN GAZA AND DAVID CHARTER

Taleban will survive until spring, Prescott tells MPs Prime Minister faces angry Sharon today

TONY BLAIR’S dual mission to revive the Middle East peace process and shore up the anti-terrorism coalition hit severe trouble in Syria yesterday when he was confronted with the full ferocity of Muslim opposition to the war in Afghanistan.

The mission is likely to get even bumpier today when the Prime Minister faces the Israeli Government, which was angered by the platform that his Damascus visit gave Syria, and Palestinian protests in Gaza.

Mr Blair was publicly rebuffed when President Assad, who had invited him to Damascus, used a joint press conference to attack the war in Afghanistan, describe Palestinian terrorist groups as freedom fighters, accept Taleban claims on civilian casualties, and call Israel a terrorist state. The President compared Palestinian “resistance fighters” to General Charles de Gaulle in his resistance to the Nazi occupation in France.

The hostility towards the US-led bombing in Afghanistan was echoed in Riyadh last night as American jets bombed the Taleban frontlines north of Kabul.

Asked repeatedly whether any of the senior figures that he had met on this trip had backed the war, Mr Blair’s spokesman side-stepped the question by saying that there had been agreements about the objectives of tackling terrorism, but “of course there is discussion about the means”.

On the home front there were further problems for Mr Blair. John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister, told MPs that the campaign was not likely to bear fruit until spring.

Mr Prescott told MPs: “We will now begin the steady progress over the winter building up to the spring of next year of fragmenting, undermining and eventually destroying the Taleban regime.”

Downing Street sources insisted that Mr Prescott was stating the obvious, but there were signs of annoyance that a timetable had been set out for the first time.

Mr Assad’s words are likely to produce a furious response from Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister. Mr Blair will meet him today before going to Gaza to see Yassir Arafat, the Palestinian leader. Israeli forces yesterday killed six Palestinians, including a Hamas militant in a missile strike.

The Prime Minister, whose expression darkened during Mr Assad’s denunciation of the conduct of the war, was surprised by what appeared to be an ambush by the President. British sources said later that Mr Assad clearly had to talk to his domestic audience.

Close colleagues of Mr Blair said that he had asked Mr Assad for help in getting the peace process under way again by urging hardline groups to restrain their activities. Mr Assad, who portrayed himself as the voice of moderate Islam, had asked for Mr Blair’s aid in helping to control the extreme fundamentalists, the colleagues said.Mr Blair welcomed a repeated condemnation from Mr Assad of the atrocities of September 11, but the President followed that by saying that there was a difference between combating terrorism and war.

“We did not say that we supported an international coalition for launching a war,” he said. “We are always against war.” Asked whether he was asking Mr Blair to stop the war, Mr Assad replied: “We are not asking for anything.

“At the same time we cannot accept what we see every day on the television screens: the killing of innocent civilians, hundreds of them dying every day. I do not think anybody in the West agrees to that.” The Taleban said yesterday that the civilian toll was 1,500.

Mr Blair, who aides said decided not to raise the stakes by confronting Mr Assad in public about his comments, interjected that the West had done its utmost to minimise civilian casualties. The attacks in the US on September 11 were designed to maximise civilian casualties, he added.

Syria wanted peace, Mr Assad said. “Israel has proved every day that it is against this peace. The desire for peace cannot co-exist with the desire for killing. Israel is prosecuting state terrorism regularly.”

In Saudi Arabia Mr Blair had talks with King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, the acting ruler. The talks were previously postponed because of sensitivities over the bombing, but they were reinstated at the Saudis’ request.

Mr Blair’s spokesman said that two weeks ago it had been reported that Mr Blair was not welcome in Saudi Arabia. The visit showed that was not the case, he said.

At a press briefing last night in Riyadh Mr Blair said that he and and the Saudi leadership agreed that there should be a broad-based government to replace the Taleban and that the two countries would work together to achieve it.

Brushing aside questions about the alleged Saudi refusal to allow use of its air bases for attacks on Afghanistan, Mr Blair said that they had “responded positively to every request made to them”.

Asked if he was disappointed by Mr Assad’s comments, he said: “You have to understand there are different perspectives people bring to this.” He added that there was far greater understanding than may have appeared the case in public.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001