Beckett and Blair ‘at one’ on Lebanon policy
The suggestion that Downing Street and the Foreign Office are at odds over what to do about the crisis in Lebanon is “complete rubbish”, Tony Blair has said.
The prime minister insisted he and his foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, were agreed that a UN resolution – which is expected within a few days – was the best option for a sustained peace in the Middle East.
He also repeated his condemnation of Iran, who fund Hizbullah, saying the president’s call this morning for Israel to be eliminated as the way to solve the Middle East crisis was “shocking” and showed the pressure the Jewish state was under.
Reports suggest Ms Beckett has been privately pushing the prime minister to break with the United States and Germany and call for an immediate ceasefire of Israel’s attacks on southern Lebanon.
Mr Blair has also been coming under increasing pressure from within his own party about his failure to condemn the bombing – the chairwoman of the parliamentary Labour party yesterday warned the “vast majority” of Labour MPs wanted an immediate ceasefire.
“The idea that Margaret Beckett and I have been at odds in this is complete rubbish. We’ve been working as one on this in the past few weeks and will continue to do so,” the prime minister told reporters at his monthly press conference.
He acknowledged that there were “people who profoundly disagree” with Britain’s official stance on the Middle East crisis, and that there “is anxiety among members of the cabinet, the parliamentary Labour party or the country”.
But he insisted: “Please don’t misunderstand me about this – any sentient human being could not fail to be moved by what they see in suffering and death. But I’m trying to bring it to an end by the only practical means of doing so.”
Mr Blair said he expected a UN resolution on the issue to be passed within the next few days, but Britain and the US still remained opposed to calls for Israel to halt its attacks, saying Hizbullah must also stop firing rockets into northern Israel.
“Unless you get an agreement that involves not just the government of Israel but the whole government of Lebanon, and unless you put it in place in a way that is going to hold, all you’re doing is expressing a view and not getting the job done,” he said.
Plans for an international stabilisation force are also expected to be unveiled, which would enforce UN security resolution 1559. This orders the Lebanese government to disarm Hizbullah militants who control the south of their country.
Today Mr Blair said the rules of engagement of this force are yet to be decided, noting only that its purpose would be to ensure Israel had no need to continue its attacks.
“We hope not only to get a resolution that suspends hostilities in the next few days, but also to outline a framework of a plan that puts an end to the conflict coming back,” he said.
