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Israel's Prime Minister on Mission to Repair Friendship, Isolate Foe
Aired July 14, 2003 - 05:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israel's prime minister is on a mission to repair a friendship and isolate a foe. Ariel Sharon is in London this morning and we take you there live.
CNN's senior European political correspondent Robin Oakley is there -- good morning, Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
An important visit, really, from Ariel Sharon to see Tony Blair. There have been tensions earlier this year. The British staged a conference on Palestinian reform back in January and didn't invite the Israelis, so the Israelis actually barred Palestinians from coming to that conference and most of it had to be conducted by video phone. There's also a lot of suspicion in Israel that the European Union in general, of which Britain, of course, is part, is overly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
But this is very much seen as a repair mission and it's emphasized that Israel regards Tony Blair as a friend, a traditional friend. That won't stop them having disagreements on some issues, though. Ariel Sharon wants the British and the European Union to have a lot less to do with Yasser Arafat in future. He sees him as somebody who's undermining the road map peace process.
There will also be disagreements, I think, if the British press too hard for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, and for a halt to the 210 mile security fence that Israel is building, partly using Palestinian territory to do so -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, Robin, something else we'd like to talk about this morning are those 16 words in the president's State of the Union address, you know, involving British intelligence and uranium and Niger. The heat has got to be really hot on Tony Blair.
OAKLEY: It's certainly hot on Tony Blair. An opinion poll published today says that 54 percent of the British public wouldn't trust Tony Blair further than they could throw him. Another poll says that two thirds of the British public believe they've been misled over the use of intelligence in advance of the Iraqi war.
And Tony Blair will be going to see George Bush in Washington on Thursday with an unusual degree of tension between the two of them. These disagreements that you mentioned over whether Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear weapons program from the state of Niger. That's been taken out on -- the CIA have now taken the blame and said it should never have been referred to in the president's State of the Union message back in January.
The British are still maintaining that they have separate intelligence to say that that was so. But the British were never told about Ambassador Joe Wilson's mission to Niger to, in which he found that there was no possible way in which this uranium was being supplied.
So real differences there. Other differences to come over the holding of British suspects at Guantanamo Bay facing trial by military commission. Tony Blair under huge pressure at home to ask George Bush to have those British citizens sent back to Britain for trial. But, of course, there's no guarantee they would get a trial in Britain because it is not the government here which would decide whether or not there was a trial held, but an independent legal process -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Interesting stuff.
We're going to talk more about it in the next hour of DAYBREAK.
Many thanks, Robin Oakley, live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Isolate Foe>
Aired July 14, 2003 - 05:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israel's prime minister is on a mission to repair a friendship and isolate a foe. Ariel Sharon is in London this morning and we take you there live.
CNN's senior European political correspondent Robin Oakley is there -- good morning, Robin.
ROBIN OAKLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.
An important visit, really, from Ariel Sharon to see Tony Blair. There have been tensions earlier this year. The British staged a conference on Palestinian reform back in January and didn't invite the Israelis, so the Israelis actually barred Palestinians from coming to that conference and most of it had to be conducted by video phone. There's also a lot of suspicion in Israel that the European Union in general, of which Britain, of course, is part, is overly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause.
But this is very much seen as a repair mission and it's emphasized that Israel regards Tony Blair as a friend, a traditional friend. That won't stop them having disagreements on some issues, though. Ariel Sharon wants the British and the European Union to have a lot less to do with Yasser Arafat in future. He sees him as somebody who's undermining the road map peace process.
There will also be disagreements, I think, if the British press too hard for the release of more Palestinian prisoners, and for a halt to the 210 mile security fence that Israel is building, partly using Palestinian territory to do so -- Carol.
COSTELLO: You know, Robin, something else we'd like to talk about this morning are those 16 words in the president's State of the Union address, you know, involving British intelligence and uranium and Niger. The heat has got to be really hot on Tony Blair.
OAKLEY: It's certainly hot on Tony Blair. An opinion poll published today says that 54 percent of the British public wouldn't trust Tony Blair further than they could throw him. Another poll says that two thirds of the British public believe they've been misled over the use of intelligence in advance of the Iraqi war.
And Tony Blair will be going to see George Bush in Washington on Thursday with an unusual degree of tension between the two of them. These disagreements that you mentioned over whether Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear weapons program from the state of Niger. That's been taken out on -- the CIA have now taken the blame and said it should never have been referred to in the president's State of the Union message back in January.
The British are still maintaining that they have separate intelligence to say that that was so. But the British were never told about Ambassador Joe Wilson's mission to Niger to, in which he found that there was no possible way in which this uranium was being supplied.
So real differences there. Other differences to come over the holding of British suspects at Guantanamo Bay facing trial by military commission. Tony Blair under huge pressure at home to ask George Bush to have those British citizens sent back to Britain for trial. But, of course, there's no guarantee they would get a trial in Britain because it is not the government here which would decide whether or not there was a trial held, but an independent legal process -- Carol.
COSTELLO: Interesting stuff.
We're going to talk more about it in the next hour of DAYBREAK.
Many thanks, Robin Oakley, live from London this morning.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Isolate Foe>
