Haaretz
Av 4, 5766
U.S. President
George W. Bush apologized on Friday to British Prime Minister Tony Blair
after Britain complained Washington had not followed correct procedures
for sending bombs to Israel via a British airport, a British official
said.
Blair's spokesman told reporters traveling with Blair that
Bush raised the issue briefly at the start of his meeting with Blair at
the White House.
"President Bush did apologize for the fact that
proper procedures were not followed," the spokesman said. "President Bush
as part of the introduction said 'I'm sorry there was a problem.' It was
literally that," the spokesman told reporters aboard his plane.
The
British government had formally complained to the United States over its
use of a British airport for transiting bombs to Israel.
British
media reported on Wednesday that aircraft carrying "bunker-busting" bombs
from the United States to Israel refuelled at Prestwick airport in
Scotland over the weekend.
The United States denied on Thursday
that it had broken British air transport procedures after London
complained about U.S. flights through a Scottish airport taking bombs to
Israel.
A newspaper said Britain had agreed to allow Washington to
fly more weapons to Israel via its airports despite Foreign Secretary
Margaret Beckett saying she was "not happy" about Washington failing to
comply with procedures for such flights.
Blair has faced mounting
criticism at home as the only major world leader to join the United States
in refusing to call for Israel to immediately stop its two-week bombing
campaign of Lebanon.
Beckett said on Wednesday she had complained
to Washington because the United States had not followed procedure for
flying cargo loads of bombs bound for Israel through British
airports.
"We have already let the United States know that this is
an issue that appears to be seriously at fault, and we will be making a
formal protest if it appears that that is what has happened," she said in
Rome after a Lebanon crisis meeting.
Newspapers have said two
Airbus cargo jets loaded with U.S. bunker-busting bombs landed at
Prestwick. British officials have not commented on the flights in detail
but do not dispute those accounts.
"It appears that insofar as
there are procedures for handling that kind of hazardous cargo,
irrespective of what they are, it does appear that they were not
followed," Beckett said.
But British officials have since seemed to
row back from that position, saying authorities are still studying whether
any rules were broken. The Foreign Office refused to allow its spokesman
to discuss the subject on the record on Thursday.
U.S. Defense
Department spokesman Joe Carpenter said Washington had double checked its
records of all flights since the reports emerged and found that it had not
broken any procedures, in Britain or anywhere else.
"It's our
policy that U.S. military flights and those contracted on our behalf
comply with existing bilateral agreements," he said. "There have been no
recent deviations from those procedures."
The Evening Standard
newspaper said London had given Washington the all-clear to continue more
Israel-bound arms flights after sorting out the proper procedures. The
Foreign Office would neither confirm nor deny that report.
Blair's
backing for President Bush in refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire
in Lebanon is unpopular at home. Blair has said an agreement on an
international force and other conditions are needed before a ceasefire can
be called.
He was mocked by the media after he was overheard by an
open microphone at a summit offering his services to Bush to go to the
Middle East ahead of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Bush didn't
accept the offer, and Blair didn't go.
U.S. use of British airports
has been an issue in the past, with Blair being accused by
parliamentarians and human rights groups of allowing Washington to
transport prisoners over British territory outside of normal extradition
procedures.
Blair says his government has broken no laws over such
"extraordinary renditions."
Bush: Rice to return to
Mideast
Bush said Friday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
would return to the Middle East on Saturday, with a cease-fire proposal
package to present to Israel and Lebanon.
Speaking at joint press
conference with Blair after the two met in Washington on the two-week long
conflict, the president said that Rice will be charged with working with
Beirut and Jerusalem to come up with an acceptable United Nations
resolution.
"Her instructions are to work with Israel and Lebanon
to come up with an acceptable UN Security Council resolution that we can
table next week," Bush said.
The president also stressed the need
for an international force to be deployed in Lebanon to assist the
Lebanese army in efforts to regain control of southern Lebanon, where
Hezbollah has been the dominant military presence since the Israel Defense
Forces withdrew from the area in May 2000.
"We agree that a to
augment the Lebanese army as it moves the south of that country. An
effective multinational force will help speed delivery of humanitarian
relief," Bush said.
He said the plan developed by he and Blair
would "make every effort to achieve a lasting peace out of this
process."
"This is a moment of intense conflict in the Middle
East," the president added. "Yet our aim is to turn it into a moment of
opportunity and a chance for broader change in the region."
"In
Lebanon, Hezbollah and its Iranian and Syrian sponsors are willing to kill
and use violence to stop the spread of peace and democracy," he said.
"They're not going to succeed."
He added: "The stakes are larger
than just Lebanon."
Blair said he and Bush agreed a UN resolution
is needed as soon as possible to stop hostilities in Lebanon.
The
prime minister said it was important not only to get a cessation of
violence but to use the opportunity to set out and achieve a "different
strategic direction for the whole of that region."
"We've got to
deal with the immediate situation" but also realize that the violence in
recent weeks is part of a bigger picture that must be addressed," said
Blair.
He told reporters that three steps were being implemented to
end the conflict - the return of Rice to the region, a meeting of Monday
on the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon, and a UN
resolution as soon as possible to allow a cessation of
hostilities.
"Nothing will work, unless, as well as an end to the
immediate crisis, we put in place the measures necessary to prevent it
from occurring again," Blair said. "We take this opportunity to set out
and achieve a different strategic direction for the whole of that
region."
He urged Iran and Syria to stop supporting terrorism and
become responsible mmebers of the international community.
But
Blair also revealed the difficulty of restoring calm to a long-volatile
region. "This can only work if Hezbollah are prepared to allow it to
work," he said.
Britain and France said earlier Friday that they
would press for a UN resolution to end the violence between Israel and
Hezbollah.
Blair's spokesman said the prime minister would seek to
"increase the urgency" of diplomacy to end the violence between Israel and
Hezbollah in his talks with Bush in Washington.
Speaking aboard
Blair's plane as it flew to Washington, the spokesman said Britain hoped a
UN resolution could be in place by next week. He said Britain sought "to
increase the urgency, the pace of diplomacy, in identifying the practical
steps that are necessary to bring about a cease-fire on both
sides."
French President Jacques Chirac said Friday that France
will press for the rapid adoption of a UN Security Council resolution
calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, his office
said.
Meanwhile, Portugal said Friday it would be willing to join
any European Union peacekeeping force in an effort to stop the
fighting.
"Portugal is willing to, within the EU, help find a
strong solution for this conflict," said Portuguese Foreign Minister Luis
Amado.
Italy, Germany, Ireland, France and Turkey have said they
are considering
joining a United Nations-run multinational force.
However, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations on
Thursday
cast doubt on major UN
involvement in any international force in Lebanon, saying
more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a
volatile situation.
Rice: I'll return to region
Rice
said Friday she will return to the Middle East to work with others on
trying to bring an end to the fighting.
"I do think it is important
that groundwork be laid so I can make the most of whatever time I can
spend there," Rice told a news conference in Malaysia, where she has been
attending a conference on Asian issues.
The United States, adopting
a diplomatic stance that has not been embraced by allies, has been
insisting that any cease-fire to the violence over the last three weeks
must come with conditions.
Otherwise, Rice and other U.S. officials
have said repeatedly, they fear just a repetition of the on-again,
off-again violence of recent years.
Asked what she hoped to
accomplish when she does return to the region, Rice said, "We hope to
achieve an early end to this violence, that's what we hope to
achieve."
"That means that we have to help the parties establish
conditions that will make it possible for an early cease-fire that,
nonetheless, does not return us to the status quo," she said. Referring to
a summit about Lebanon that was held in Rome, she said: "I think everybody
in Rome agreed that we can't return to the circumstances that led us to
this in the first place."
Rice said the terms and conditions of a
such a cease-fire would involve "a multinational force under UN
supervision" that would have a mandate to enforce a peace
agreement.
Rice's spokesman, Adam Ereli, took strong issue with an
assertion by Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who said the failure of world
leaders to call for an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome gave
Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush
Hezbollah.
"Any such statement is outrageous," Ereli said. "The
United States is sparing no effort to bring a durable and lasting end to
this conflict."
Rice has spent three days dashing to high-stakes
meetings in Beirut, Jerusalem, the West Bank and Rome, and then traveled
to Malaysia on Thursday for the long-planned conference of the Association
of Southeast Asian Nations.
At her news conference Friday, Rice
said that before returning to the region, she wanted to confer with aides
Elliot Abrams and David Welch, both U.S. envoys for the region, to work on
a second trek there.