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Islamic Human Rights Commission
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PRESS RELEASE: Concern raised over today’s Blair-Bush talks – worries over postwar Iraq and the finalisation of the Middle East road map

07 April 2003

IHRC notes that today’s Blair-Bush talks in Belfast over postwar Iraq and the finalisation of the Middle East road map raises serious concerns and worries at how events will develop in an American-administered post-Saddam Iraq and the prospect of a severely emasculated Palestinian state. The glaring lack of international confidence and scepticism, especially in the Arab and Muslim world, detracts from American and British credibility.

The Bush administration’s outrageous claim to be an honest broker in the Middle East is little more than the articulation of pure hypocrisy. Its double-sworded approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and aggression against Iraq, with the prospect for a far-right Pentagon-controlled government, with a smash-and-grab mentality to Iraq’s resources, exacerbates the already dire situation in the Middle East.

At the beginning of America’s and Britain’s war on Iraq, the Bush administration awarded Israel with a $10 billion package, including a $1 billion dollar military component, on top on the yearly $3 billion America designates for Israel, mostly in military aid. Having bolstered Sharon’s political credibility and Israel’s militarily capability, this affirms and reinforces the unilateralist stance of the pro-war hawks in Washington that Israel occupies central status in guiding US foreign policy and the re-drawing of the Middle East’s political map. Thus, guaranteeing Israel’s status will have a substantial, if not guiding impact on any post-Saddam regime that the US imposes on Iraq: for the benefit of US and Israel, to the detriment of the Iraqi, Palestinian, Arab and Muslim people.

The Pentagon-controlled government-in-waiting poised to take over Iraq is overwhelmingly drawn from the ranks of the US military ranks and Bush administration; the list of appointees are dominated by the most aggressive proponents of US unilateralism and advocates of uncompromising support for Israel, including former advisers to Israeli prime ministers and arms manufacturers, the ex-head of the CIA and proponents of Camp Ray X and civil rights regression.

The list for appointees makes for disconcerting reading, raising fears and anxieties as to the administration of post-Saddam Iraq under US rule and what attire it will take. As vociferous advocates of US unilateral domination through absolute military superiority and all implacably pro-Israeli, IHRC is deeply concerned as to what Iraq they will build. With a disregard for international law and human rights and a disavowal of Palestinian and Iraqi self-determination, the post-Saddam US regime may witness one tyranny replace another. Israel will be free to further consolidate its grip over the Occupied Territories. Further disheartening is the complicity displayed by the Blair government.

To read briefing, ‘Post-Saddam Iraq – The Pentagon’s far-right poised to take over and Ayatollah Sistani’s fatwa’, please visit:

www.ihrc.org.uk/show.php?id=596

For further information, please call the press office on (+44) 208 902 0888 or (+44) 7958 522 196.

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