Disarmament Documentation

STRAW COMMENTS ON US ELECTION RESULT (04/11/04) EDITED TRANSCRIPT OF THE FOREIGN SECRETARY, JACK STRAW, ON THE BBC RADIO 4 TODAY PROGRAMME, THURSDAY 4TH NOVEMBER 2004.

INTERVIEWER: Looking just for a moment at our relationship with the United States, does it dismay you at all that President Bush's re-election is so unwelcome to so many people here? Does that matter do you think?

JACK STRAW: Well I think that time will prove probably otherwise. If people have got particular opinions I understand that. The important thing however is that although it's recognised that a democratic country has come to a very clear democratic result it has re-elected President Bush. The United States is the largest economy in the world, it is the most powerful democracy in the world, it is in everybody's interest including that of continental Europe where I am at the moment that we work together with the United States, and that's what the Prime Minister Tony Blair and I and the rest of the Government will be seeking to do.

And I think that it is actually a moment of opportunity for the democratic world to come together and to work on items and issues particularly the Middle East on which we've seen frustratingly small progress in recent years. So there's a big agenda there. The Prime Minister in his statement yesterday made clear how he intended to pursue that agenda particularly on the Middle East but there's also for example this huge issue of climate change where there is a big disagreement between the whole of Europe, including the United Kingdom on the one side and the United States at a national government level on the other side.

Her Majesty The Queen opened a very important climate change conference here in Berlin yesterday which we were running with the German government. We have a big job to do not only with the government of the United States but also with the people of the United States to explain to them why we believe that it's in everybody's interests to move on climate change. The heartening thing is that I think that you can already see at a state level in the United States that shift taking place so I'm optimistic.

INTERVIEWER: Let's pick up what you said about working with the United States. Mr Blair said two and a half years ago that when America is fighting for its values, however tough, we fight with her. That sounds a bit like rhetoric now doesn't it, because the idea of us fighting alongside America, if she decides on another course of military action as she did over Iraq is pretty remote isn't it?

JACK STRAW: Well first I think the circumstances in which that would arise are pretty remote. I mean I don't think that we're going to see in the next four years the most cataclysmic event for international relations that we've seen in sixty years which occurred on the 11th of September 2001. So I understand the point you're making, but I don't actually think the circumstances will arise. And if, you know, we've all obviously had to take stock of the way in which the world so dramatically changed that morning on the 11th of September. It has changed perceptions, yes it's opened up divisions in the international community but I think those can be healed.

And one of the interesting things about President Bush's first term is that despite the rhetoric from the so called Neo Cons on the right of the Republican party President Bush did seek to work through international organisations, particularly the United Nations. And for example on the Middle East he was the first United States President to go to the United Nations' General Assembly and to say look if there's going to be a solution to the Israel Palestine conflict, it has to be one which recognises a secure and viable state of Palestine sitting alongside a secure state of Israel. And subsequently he pushed and Secretary Powell pushed through with our active support Security Council Resolution 30.97 which laid that down. and later led to the road map. So we've got to however now ensure that that good language is translated more quickly in to practice.

INTERVIEWER: And there's not much sign of that if President Bush behaves the way he has been behaving and does not put pressure on Mr Sharon to do what we believe, you believe, I believe I'm speaking for you, should be done in the West Bank.

JACK STRAW: There's a big agenda in terms of dealing with the West Bank but we have just seen indeed the Knesset voted yesterday on a very important compensation package, very important and courageous decision being made by Ariel Sharon's government in Israel to disengage from Gaza …

INTERVIEWER: But Gaza's not enough is it?

JACK STRAW: Well it's not enough but, but don't dismiss it. I mean Gaza is of fundamental importance, if you were going to get what the whole of the international community seeks which is a withdrawal of Israel from the occupied territories which is Gaza and the West Bank that process has to start somewhere, it was never going to take place over night. Now what the Israeli government and parliament has now committed itself to doing is by next March withdrawing itself from Gaza. That is a necessary but by no means sufficient step towards the creation of a viable Palestinian state.

What we now have to do and the European Union Foreign Ministers will be discussing this later in Brussels today is to ensure that there is active support for the Palestinian authorities so there's not a vacuum left but opportunity, the opportunities that are created for the Palestinians by the Israelis' withdrawal are taken up, there's adequate security, you then move to elections. And then to pick up your point about the West Bank, yes we have to ensure the process then continues. Now President Bush quite voluntarily has committed himself to a two state solution. He has committed himself to the road map, he's committed himself to the quartet process which is that not the United States going it alone but with the European Union, the United Nations and the Russian Federation …

INTERVIEWER: But he also gave Ariel Sharon his approval for larger West Bank settlements I mean, which astonished many people including you.

JACK STRAW: But in the interview he gave in April I don't want to go in to the textual analysis of what was said in that now famous press conference in April in the White House except to say that President Bush also referred repeatedly to the importance of the road map and recognising it. But any way things have moved on since April, we now do have the disengagement from Gaza and in, and as well as that the international commitments to the Palestinians are that there should be a viable territory created on the West Bank as well as within Gaza.

INTERVIEWER: Let's move to another part of the world then, Iran. You talked about divisions in the world that followed 9/11, the reasons for the divisions of course was the invasion of Iraq bearing in mind what has happened in Iraq at the time and since it is inconceivable is it not that the world would support American military action presumably some sort of bombing, possibly using Israelis as a proxy who knows against the Iranians over their nuclear programme if indeed such a programme exits?

JACK STRAW: Well not only is that inconceivable I think the prospect of it happening is inconceivable…

INTERVIEWER: In spite of what some of the Neo Cons in Washington are, are urging?

JACK STRAW: What I know is how the United States government have operated internationally and with international co-operation in respect of Iran. Let me just point this out. Fifteen months ago France, Germany and the United Kingdom three foreign ministers, came together with the active support of our heads of government to work to resolve the Iran issue. What is certain is that Iran has in the past failed to meet its undertakings under the safeguards agreement of the International Atomic Energy Agency. And we have, went to Tehran last October, the 21st, that's 2003, got a heads of agreements and we've been working to implement it ever since.

That has led because it is difficult negotiating with Iran they are, but it's led to a series of meetings in the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors. In each of those although there's been a tense discussion before, we've had complete consensus including with the United States. There's a further meeting coming at the end of November. What my three, three political directors are doing from, from the three foreign ministers in active co-operation with other members of the G8 which obviously includes the United States is to seek to resolve this matter in a constructive way. Now I can't give you the odds on that, but what I can say is that on each occasion up to now the United States has supported the consensus in the board of governors there and I've no reason to think that will split at the end of November …

INTERVIEWER: But you're quite clear that if, and you say it's a very big if, but if the United States decided to take action against Iran we would not be on their side? We wouldn't fight shoulder to shoulder with them?

JACK STRAW: I don't accept it, what I'm saying to you is that I don't accept the assumption, I don't think that will arise, all right, but I don't see any circumstances in which military action would be justified against Iran full stop. I think I've made that clear.

Source: UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office, http://www.fco.gov.uk.