Tony Blair’s Diplomatic Tours

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Tony Blair’s Diplomatic Tours

Tyneside Stop The War Coalition:
March and Rally Against The War: "Give Peace A Chance"

Letter to the Editor:
Successful South London Stop the War Coalition Meeting

Iraq News In Brief:
US Gears Up To Revive "Smart Sanctions" against Iraq
Thousands of Iraqi Volunteers Stage Pro-Palestinian Parade
Iraq Denies Terrorist Link

News In Brief:
Taleban Still Defiant after Four Weeks of Bombardment
Qatar to Host WTO Summit

Tony Blair has arrived back in London after his Middle East diplomatic mission. He had visited Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Palestinian Authority in the past 48 hours.

The Prime Minister will fly to Washington next week to brief President George W Bush on his talks. President Bush himself is to hold meetings with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and French President Jacques Chirac next week.

Tony Blair is to jet straight back to London on Wednesday after meeting the US President for an expected meeting with Israeli President Ariel Sharon the next day.

Tony Blair, on being asked if there was now a new blueprint for the peace process, said: "At the moment there are all sorts of ideas being discussed but that is something that has to be discussed privately. I think there is the possibility, I wouldn't put it any higher than that, that we can prepare the ground to move the Middle East peace process forward."

He indicated that he believes his visits, though sometimes controversial, are worthwhile in establishing a dialogue with some of the key players in the region, saying he could either stand aside or "get your hands dirty" and try to resolve issues through negotiation.

Tony Blair is being extremely active in his mission to "re-order the world". This mission has as its focus the imposition of Anglo-American style democracy in Afghanistan, Central Asia and throughout the world in the interests of Anglo-US imperialism, and everything is being made subordinate to this hegemonic goal.

Hundreds are expected to join a peace march and rally through the streets of Newcastle this Saturday, November 3, calling for "Justice Not Vengeance", and an end to the bombing in Afghanistan. As more local MPs express the growing public concern over the effects of the "war on terror", organisers are confident of growing support for the calls to halt the bombing, to avert a humanitarian crisis and to look for peaceful solutions.

The organisers are a broad-based coalition of religious, political and peace groups, which has met since the first week after the terrorist attacks on September 11, and planned a series of protests, vigils, petitions and teach-ins. "The war against Afghanistan is only creating more innocent victims, it is no solution to terrorism," said Sam Robson of the coalition. "The attacks on Red Cross warehouses and military hospitals, all protected under the Geneva Conventions, and the use of cluster bombs, which leave behind unexploded bomblets that kill and maim children who pick them up, show what a dirty war this is."

Speakers at the rally, at Grey's Monument, will include Sajid Malik (Interfaith Forum), Alan Smithson (Bishop of Jarrow), Rabbi Moshe Yehudai-Rimmer (Israeli peace activist), Kevin Flynn (Socialist Alliance), Rasheed Saraba (Pakistan Labour Party) and an Iranian refugee. National speakers will include Sylvia Boyes (Trident Ploughshares/CND, subject of a BBC "Everyman" programme in January 2001) and Tina Downes (President of NATFHE). Messages of support have been received from John Marshall, Deputy Mayor of the City of Newcastle, and from MP Alice Mahon.

Barry Gills of Newcastle University said, "The breadth of opposition to the bombing is immense. The aid agencies have confirmed that thousands are threatened with starvation this winter unless the bombing is halted so that food supplies can be brought in. The mounting civilian deaths show that the war is floundering militarily."

The march, from the Civic Centre to Grey's Monument, will be peaceful and upbeat, say the organisers, and will be accompanied by a samba band. "It's because we were horrified by the scale of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, that we're saying 'No More Violence' now," said Andrew Gray (Green Party & Quakers). "It's time we talked about the alternatives to violence, about how we can make international courts work, about how we address the underlying causes of hatred and terrorism."

The march will meet on the ceremonial way at the Civic Centre at 11am. It will proceed to Grey's Monument via Northumberland Street, for the rally and speeches.

A very successful public meeting was held on Thursday, November 1, by the South London branch of the Stop the War Coalition at Woolwich Town Hall. Over 100 people came to hear speeches by the veteran CND and peace campaigner Bruce Kent, Chrissie Ross a Methodist preacher, Liz Davies from Stop the War Coalition and Guy Taylor from the anti-capitalist Globalise Resistance movement.

All the speakers spelt out the vicious brutality of this war in which hundreds, if not thousands of innocent Afghan men, women and children have already been killed and maimed. Bruce Kent pointed out that the war is illegal as it goes against the UN Charter, a clause of which calls for international disputes to be settled by peaceful means and through the use of cluster bombs which have been banned by international law. He and other speakers pointed out that, far from combating terrorism, it will create more divisions in the world which could ultimately lead to a third world war.

All the speakers said that this war was motivated by crude revenge, that the Afghan people had never attacked or harmed the US in any way and that we had the obscene spectacle of the richest and most powerful country in the world unleashing the most terrible bombing campaign (including the use of cluster bombs banned by international law) against one of the poorest countries. Both Liz Davies and Guy Taylor pointed out that the real reason for this war was US imperialist global interests and Tony Blair was utterly condemned for his leading role in the war.

All the speakers and many people from the floor emphasised the importance of building a powerful anti-war movement including people from all sections of the community regardless of race or religious belief. The meeting ended in a fighting positive note and a call for everyone present to rally their friends, family and work colleagues to join the anti war campaign and to make the demonstration on November 18 even bigger than the last.

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A weekly vigil of the South London Stop the War Campaign is held at the Blackheath Royal Standard roundabout (at the bottom of Stratheden Road London SE3) every Friday from 6.00 - 7.30 pm.

The US intends to push ahead with attempts to overhaul the UN sanctions on Iraq when phase 10 of the oil-for-food programme ends on November 30. "The new proposals will not be exactly the same as the draft amendment earlier this year," a spokeswoman for the US State Department has said. "However, the substance will be similar."

A spokesman for the US mission to the UN said that Washington "is committed to pursuing a new approach to lift the economic sanctions on civilian goods in Iraq", and that US officials are already in discussions with their Russian counterparts on the issue. "We hope that the Russians will be convinced, it's important to get them on board."

In June, Russia's threat to veto the so-called "smart sanctions" led the US and Britain to suspend plans to ease restrictions on the import of civilian goods and clamp down on oil smuggling and illegal weapons. An attempt by the US and Britain to extend the oil-for-food programme by just one month, rather than the usual six, prompted Iraq to halt its oil exports, which it subsequently resumed.

Iraq has consistently denounced the "smart sanctions" as an attempt to circumvent the just opposition to the sanctions programme being maintained at all. Meanwhile, the US and Britain have continued to bomb Iraq in their undeclared war on an almost daily basis.

Some 5,000 Iraqi men and women who have volunteered to fight alongside the Palestinians against Israel paraded in Baghdad on Thursday after completing a two-month military training course.

Iraq government officials said that nearly seven million Iraqis have volunteered to join the Palestinian struggle against Israeli occupation in response to President Saddam Hussein's call for military units to be formed to help the Palestinians.

"We are ready to confront any aggression, and we have prepared ourselves to face up to any aggression," one of the volunteers told reporters. "When any country, whether a Muslim or non-Muslim country, comes under attack we declare our solidarity with it," he said.

Saddam Hussein has also ordered financial support to be given to the families of Palestinian victims of the uprising.

Iraq yesterday issued a denial in response to Czech Interior Minister Stanislav Gross's statement that an Iraqi diplomat and secret service agent had met Muhammad Atta in Prague. Muhammad Atta is one of those who have been alleged to have carried out the suicide attacks of September 11.

After four weeks of air raids the Taleban regime continues expressing defiance, asserting that it will not be easily defeated. Taleban Education Minister Amir Jan Muttaqi, also spokesperson for supreme leader mullah Mohammed Omar, told the Associated Press news agency on Wednesday that Afghanistan's lack of sophistication is precisely why it cannot be easily defeated. He said the country has no sophisticated computer, communications and aviation systems, so that it lacks an infrastructure whose destruction would plunge the nation into chaos.

The World Trade Organisation (WTO) has confirmed that the State of Qatar is to host its next summit, scheduled for Doha from November 9-13.

Mike Moore, general director of the WTO, has expressed his satisfaction with preparations for the event, expected to involve some 5,000 persons including delegates, journalists and representatives of non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

The announcement ends recent uncertainty as to whether the event would go ahead and its location, given that the possibility of transferring it to Singapore due to tensions in the region had been mentioned.