Thursday, January 15, 2004
JPost: Blair: PA needs a security plan
He said such a plan should allow "people to believe genuinely that every attempt is being made to stop the support of terrorism, the flow of terrorists into either the Palestinian authority or into Israel and to give a clear message that terrorism is the enemy of progress for the Palestinian people.
"Terrorism is the obstacle to political progress ... whether it is in Northern Ireland, or it is in the Middle East or it is out in Kashmir or it is in Chechnya or it is in any of the difficult trouble spots of the world," he added.
"States that have got an ambivalent attitude toward sponsoring terrorism are states that are way out of line with the rest of the international order," Blair said.
Asked about Syria, which is accused by both Washington and London of supporting terrorist activity in the Middle East, Blair said: "It is important that Syria understands its international responsibilities and keeps to them."
Credit Blair with an all-too-rare common sense statement from a European leader. Blair has of course been picture-perfect on Iraq, but the rest of Britain's Middle East policy I'm not so sure about. They still seem to want to have their cake and eat it, too, with repect to the rest - whether it's criticizing Israel's steps for security, or snuggling up to Iran's Mullahs.
