Gaby Hinsliff in San Francisco, Ned Temko in London and Peter Beaumont in Beirut
Sunday July 30, 2006
Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion last night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon.
Jack Straw, now Leader of the Commons, said in a statement released after meeting Muslim residents of his Blackburn constituency that while he grieved for the innocent Israelis killed, he also mourned the '10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by Israeli fire'.
He said he agreed with the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells that it was 'very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel', adding: 'These are not surgical strikes but have instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.' Straw said he was worried that 'a continuation of such tactics by Israel could destabilise the already fragile Lebanese nation'.
The Observer can also reveal that at a cabinet meeting before Blair left for last Friday's Washington summit with President George Bush, minister after minister pressed him to break with the Americans and publicly criticise Israel over the scale of death and destruction.
The critics included close Blair allies. One, the International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, was revealed yesterday to have told a Commons committee that he did not view Israel's strikes on power stations as a 'proportionate response' to Hizbollah attacks.
Another Blairite minister among the cabinet critics said: 'It was clear that Tony knows the situation, and didn't have to be told about the outrage felt by so many over the disproportionate suffering. He also completely understands the effect on the Muslim community - both in terms of losing Muslim voters hand over fist and the wider issue of community cohesion.'
Blair responded to the dissenters by 'engaging seriously', the minister said. 'But he made it clear why he felt he had to choose the high-risk strategy of trying to move things forward for the future of the Middle East through his talks in Washington.'
In addition to the cabinet critics, one of Blair's closest Labour confidants was understood to have urged him last week to 'place distance' between himself and Bush over the crisis.
In interviews last night in San Francisco, the Prime Minister defended his decision not to call for an immediate ceasefire, but voiced the hope that an agreement on a UN framework for ending hostilities could be reached within a period of days. Asked by Sky News if he was too close to the White House, he said: 'I will never apologise for Britain being a strong ally of the US.'
He said there had been 'perfectly good' cabinet discussions on Lebanon, telling the BBC they had not been divisive: 'What they were saying was: "Let us make sure with urgency we can stop this situation which is killing innocent people".' Yet there had to be a long-term solution, he said.
The increase in political pressure came as shifts by Israel and Hizbollah provided the first faint signs of encouragement for US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's efforts to sell a Blair-Bush plan for a ceasefire.
Diplomats said her mission would still be difficult, with Israeli strikes continuing in a bid to end rocket attacks by Hizbollah and the militia vowing to increase them. But as Rice arrived in Jerusalem last night, an Israeli official said his government would no longer insist on immediate disarmament by the militia as part of a deal. The Israelis would accept an interim arrangement under which an international force moved it back from the border and prevented it firing into Israel. Hizbollah has accepted a Lebanese government proposal including an international force.
Rice was due to meet the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, last night and, after further meetings in Jerusalem, to travel on to Beirut.
Straw's decision to go public with his concerns deepened the rift between the Prime Minister and his cabinet and MPs in what threatens to become his biggest foreign policy crisis since the Iraq war.
It also puts Straw's successor, Margaret Beckett, on the spot. She was planning to go on holiday this week, but may now have to go to New York to help pilot the draft UN resolution. Eyebrows in Whitehall were raised last week when she sent Howells to Beirut and Tel Aviv at the height of the conflict.
The timing of the revolt is awkward for Blair, forcing him to choose whom to upset: his colleagues back home or his two main hosts on the five-day trip to the US. President Bush and Rupert Murdoch both back the Israeli military action. The Prime Minister is due to make a major speech in California today at a conference hosted by Murdoch. He is expected to argue that his Washington talks with Bush were geared towards an 'urgent cessation of hostilities'.
He will also suggest the conflict could have been avoided. Instead, he will argue, the world turned a blind eye to Lebanon as Hizbollah built up its arsenals in breach of a UN resolution that required it to be disarmed and the Lebanese army to be deployed in the border area.
Blair won a concession in the Washington talks - an apology from President Bush for having failed to ask permission for a plane carrying bombs bound for Israel to land at Prestwick airport, near Glasgow. But yesterday, the civil aviation authorities announced that permission had been granted for two similar refuelling stops by US aircraft carrying 'hazardous' cargo to Israel.