LONDON, Dec 21: Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and his Israeli counterpart Binyamin Netanyahu differed so strongly over Middle East policy at talks in London this week that they cancelled a news conference to avert a public spat, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
The Daily Telegraph newspaper said Netanyahu was snubbed by British Prime Minister Tony Blair during the visit on Friday.
British officials, however, played down the reports, which come just weeks before Blair is due to meet Amram Mitzna, leader of Israel’s opposition Labour Party and its candidate in next month’s general election.
Netanyahu’s visit to London came soon after he poured cold water on a British proposal for talks in London on Palestinian political and economic reform. He said such talks would be futile if Palestinian President Yasser Arafat was representing the Palestinians.
The outspoken Netanyahu has also criticized Britain for inviting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to visit this week — the first ever visit to Britain by a Syrian president.
The Financial Times said Straw abandoned the planned news conference with Netanyahu after the two differed strongly “over what needed to be done to revive the peace process that they feared public questioning would spark a diplomatic row”.
The British foreign ministry declined to either confirm or deny the Financial Times’ claim that Straw had scrapped a planned media appearance with Netanyahu, pointing out only that the two men had appeared for photographers after their talks.
In response to a query about the Daily Telegraph report on a failed Netanyahu-Blair meeting, a spokesman for Blair’s Downing Street office said that as foreign minister, Netanyahu would be expected to meet Straw.
“I can only say it would be usual for him to meet the foreign secretary rather than the prime minister,” the spokesman told Reuters, adding that in any case, Blair was in his parliamentary constituency in northeastern England on Friday and would not have been able to meet Netanyahu.
He said no date had been set for Blair to meet Mitzna, who will stand against Israel’s incumbent right-wing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in general elections on Jan 28.
However, government sources have said the two men are likely to meet in the New Year, shortly before the ballot.
Mitzna is campaigning on a pledge to withdraw Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip.—Reuters