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Blair says he regrets siding with Israel over Hamas boycott

For the first time, former British prime minister, Tony Blair has said he and other world leaders were wrong to give in to Israeli pressure to boycott Hamas after it won the Palestinian elections in 2006

 

For the first time, former British prime minister, Tony Blair has said he and other world leaders were wrong to give in to Israeli pressure to boycott Hamas after it won the Palestinian elections in 2006, according to Independent.

 

Blair, who was prime minister at the time, supported the US President George W Bush’s push to halt aid to and cut ties with the newly elected Hamas-led authority in Gaza unless it agreed to recognize Israel and put down arms.

 

A year after Hamas rejected the terms. The boycott and Israel’s economic blockade of Gaza came into force, and remains in effect today.

 

In an interview with The Observer, the former PM said: “In retrospect I think we should have, right at the very beginning, tried to pull [Hamas] into a dialogue and shifted their positions. I think that’s where I would be in retrospect.

 

“But obviously it was very difficult, the Israelis were very opposed to it. But you know we could have probably worked out a way whereby we did – which in fact we ended up doing anyway, informally.”

 

Although Blair did not elaborate on the nature of the British Government’s “informal” contact with Hamas, he appeared to be referring to talks between MI6 and Hamas representatives to secure the release of a British journalist kidnapped in Gaza in 2007.

 

His remarks come as Hamas agreed to hold general elections in Gaza in order to bring about its long-running feud with the Fatah movement.




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