*Ø* Blogmanac | Diplomats tell Bush: Middle East policy 'dangerous'
The Independent, 5 May
"More than 60 former US diplomats yesterday lambasted George Bush for running a one-sided Middle East policy, claiming that the President's open-ended support for Israel was costing the US 'credibility, prestige and friends'.
"In a public letter to the President, inspired by a similar protest delivered to Tony Blair last week by 52 former British ambassadors, the diplomats call on the administration to return to being a 'truly honest broker' in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, and to 'reassert American principles of justice and fairness'.
"'Your unqualified support for Israel's extra-judicial assassinations, its Berlin Wall-like barrier, and its harsh military measures in occupied territories' was costing the country its credibility, the letter said. It warned that current US policies were placing US diplomats, civilians and military overseas 'in an untenable, even dangerous position.'
"As with their British counterparts, the last straw for the letter's signatories -- many of them veterans of Middle East postings -- was the 14 April meeting in Washington when Mr Bush endorsed the plan of Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, to hang on to five substantial settlement areas in the West Bank, and flatly rejected the right of return for Palestinian refugees."
CONTINUE HERE
The Independent, 5 May
"More than 60 former US diplomats yesterday lambasted George Bush for running a one-sided Middle East policy, claiming that the President's open-ended support for Israel was costing the US 'credibility, prestige and friends'.
"In a public letter to the President, inspired by a similar protest delivered to Tony Blair last week by 52 former British ambassadors, the diplomats call on the administration to return to being a 'truly honest broker' in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, and to 'reassert American principles of justice and fairness'.
"'Your unqualified support for Israel's extra-judicial assassinations, its Berlin Wall-like barrier, and its harsh military measures in occupied territories' was costing the country its credibility, the letter said. It warned that current US policies were placing US diplomats, civilians and military overseas 'in an untenable, even dangerous position.'
"As with their British counterparts, the last straw for the letter's signatories -- many of them veterans of Middle East postings -- was the 14 April meeting in Washington when Mr Bush endorsed the plan of Ariel Sharon, Israel's Prime Minister, to hang on to five substantial settlement areas in the West Bank, and flatly rejected the right of return for Palestinian refugees."
CONTINUE HERE
Nora posted item above at 2:26 AM | Permalink
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home