No Script

Please Wait...

Al-Ahed Telegram

Tony Blair Regrets Siding with ‘Israel’, Bush over Hamas Boycott in 2006

Tony Blair Regrets Siding with ‘Israel’, Bush over Hamas Boycott in 2006
folder_openUnited Kingdom access_time6 years ago
starAdd to favorites

Local Editor

For the first time, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he and other world leaders were wrong to give in to ‘Israeli' pressure to boycott Hamas after it won the Palestinian elections in 2006.

Tony Blair Regrets Siding with ‘Israel’, Bush over Hamas Boycott in 2006

Blair supported President George W Bush's push to halt aid to and cut ties with the newly elected Hamas-led authority in Gaza unless it agreed to recognize the ‘Israeli' entity.

A year after Hamas rejected the term. The boycott and Zionist economic blockade of Gaza came into force, and remains in effect today.

Blair was appointed special representative of the Middle East Quartet, which comprises the US, EU, UN and Russia, the day he resigned as Prime Minister.

In an interview with The Observer, Blair said: "In retrospect I think we should have, right at the very beginning, tried to pull [Hamas] into a dialogue and shifted their positions. I think that's where I would be in retrospect.

"But obviously it was very difficult, the ‘Israelis' were very opposed to it. But you know we could have probably worked out a way whereby we did - which in fact we ended up doing anyway, informally."

Although Blair did not elaborate on the nature of the British Government's "informal" contact with Hamas, he appeared to be referring to talks between MI6 and Hamas representatives to secure the release of a British journalist kidnapped in Gaza in 2007.

Blair's remarks come as Hamas agreed to hold general elections in Gaza in order to bring about its long-running feud with the Fatah movement.

The rival factions signed a reconciliation deal in Cairo last week after two days of negotiations brokered by Egypt.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

Comments