Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Middle East, Northern Ireland and Robin Cook.
Middle East
Asked to comment on the recent events in the Middle East the PMOS reminded journalists that the Prime Minister had expressed his outrage at the attack on Haifa on Saturday. The Prime Minister had said "I am outraged by the latest terrorist horror in Israel. My deepest condolences go to the families and friends of the victims caught in this attack. Such incidents are always sickening but even more so when they involve children."
In terms of Syria the British ambassador to the UN had made clear at yesterday’s emergency debate that while of course we understood Israel’s right to security we felt that Sunday’s action had been unacceptable since we believed it represented an escalation of events. Israel should not allow its justified anger at continuing terrorism to lead to actions which undermined the peace process and Israel’s own interests. Asked if Israel had been given a "green light" by America for the action against Syria the PMOS said that he was not a spokesperson for America but he did not recognise such a scenario.
Asked if the Government believed that Syria was on the wrong side of the argument about terrorism the PMOS said that we had always made it clear that we had a difference of view with Syria over the presence of terrorist organisations and representatives of terrorist organisations on their soil. We had made that view clear to them on a number of occasions and we would continue to do so. At the same time we believed that it was important that we remained in dialogue with the Government in Damascus and that we would also continue to do.
Northern Ireland
Asked about developments in the Northern Ireland talks the PMOS said that he thought everyone recognised we were in an intense period of contact and that contact would continue this week. There was work still to be done and that work would continue. Asked if the PM would be meeting David Trimble or Gerry Adams the PMOS said the he thought work would largely go on behind the scenes and there would be an intense period of work now.
Robin Cook
Asked if the allegations made by Robin Cook MP in his recent book, concerning the Prime Minister’s reservations about the possibility of Iraq’s capability to launch Weapons of Mass Destruction, the PMOS said that we had given our response to that yesterday and we had nothing further to add.
Asked if the Prime Minister recognised the following: "When asked by Mr. Cook if there was any chance of Saddam firing chemical weapons at British troops the Prime Minister had replied ‘yes but all the efforts he had put into concealment made it difficult for him to put the weapons quickly into use’" the PMOS said that we had made clear our answer yesterday. Asked if we were saying that Mr. Cook was lying the PMOS said he was not commenting on Mr. Cook he was simply giving our position.
Asked about the procedure for writing such books in terms of maintaining Cabinet confidentiality the PMOS said that the Cabinet Office did have a procedure but journalists should consult them about that. As he understood it that procedure was followed in this case but such memoirs were not something that was new to this administration
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