November 3, 2001	Saturday	Shaba’an 16, 1422

GAZA/LONDON: British prime minister Tony Blair will report to the US president, George Bush, next week on his three-day trip to the Middle East: it will be a depressing read-out.

Mr Blair was confronted time after time on his visit to Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel and Gaza with the grim reality of Middle East politics. He knew before going that the prospects for peace had deteriorated in the last year, but this morning he will wake up knowing just how bad it has become.

The region is even more trouble-torn today than before September 11. The combatants — from President Bashar al-Assad of Syria to the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon — instead of being chastened by the terrorist attacks are even more implacably hostile than before.

Mr Blair will face criticism that his trip was wasted. A Foreign Office source, defending the visit last night, said: “He did not go there with any illusions. No one ever said it [the gap in positions] would be bridged completely in one short three-day visit.

“The prime minister has now established dialogue with these leaders and that should be applauded. The campaign against terrorism is long- term.”

Mr Blair did give strong, emotional performances at press conferences in Al Quds with Mr Sharon, and in Gaza City with the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat, portraying himself as a friend to both. But he must have left the region frustrated.

The prime minister, who visited Gaza in 1998 and who has met Mr Arafat 13 times since taking office, had never visited the region at such a highly-charged time. Israeli soldiers killed two more Palestinians on Thursday. Normally, the Israelis are careful to avoid that kind of bloodshed when there are visiting dignitaries.

The day of his visit to Gaza was historically significant — the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, the British promise to establish a homeland for the Jews, normally an occasion for anti- British demonstrations in Gaza and the West Bank.

VICTORY SALUTES: Accompanied by his special Middle East envoy, Lord Levy, he went by helicopter from Al Quds to the border with Gaza, from where a convoy took him to Gaza City. Palestinians waved flags and made victory salutes and Mr Blair was met with full military honours, including a band playing the British national anthem, and a full troop inspection.

At a joint press conference, Mr Arafat praised Mr Blair as a friend of the Holy Land, of the peace process and of himself personally. In reply, the prime minister said he regarded himself as a true friend of the Palestinian people, just as he had told Mr Sharon earlier in the day in Al Quds that he was a true friend of Israel.

Mr Sharon offered no sign of compromise, insisting that Israel would continue to assassinate Palestinians it regards as potential killers, or who it believes have been behind bombings and shootings.

Other European countries have looked on bemused at the way Mr Blair has taken to such high-level diplomacy in the service of the US-led coalition against terrorism. A French ministerial source said yesterday he was “not shocked” by Mr Blair’s role, saying he understood the prime minister had a strong personal convictions, and Britain’s traditional links with the US.

Germany and other states have been active in recent weeks in both the Middle East and the Indian sub-continent, but none has been as active as Mr Blair. One west European diplomat spoke disparagingly yesterday about Mr Blair being Mr Bush’s messenger, a tag that is likely to stick to the prime minister for a while.

Part of the reason other European Union countries have been so puzzled by the prime minister’s high-profile diplomacy is that they know Britain has little influence in the Middle East these days. While the Balfour declaration helped to create Israel, and Britain was the former colonial power in Palestine for much of the last century, its main leverage these days is as part of the EU.

The EU’s influence on Israel is limited to making moral appeals for calm. As a big aid donor to the Palestinian authority, it has more sway with Mr Arafat.

Mr Blair’s thoughts on a Middle East peace plan do not matter much to Mr Sharon. He listens only to the Israeli public, especially the Israeli right wing, and, when forced to, to Washington.

In the run-up to the visit, the Israeli press, echoing west European diplomats, also described Mr Blair as Mr Bush’s personal messenger, in a way not intended to be flattering. But that role is what gives him a bit of clout in the region, no matter how small. It is because they know that Mr Blair will relay their thoughts to Mr Bush, that President Assad of Syria and the others take him more seriously than British power these days deserves. —Dawn/The Guardian News Service.