Low punches
The one country I had never visited in the Middle East is our great friend and ally Jordan, where I have just been. The country has no energy resources, and is carrying the burden of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees. Nevertheless they continue to liberalise their economy and are very bravely about to remove energy subsidies, despite soaring oil prices.
King Abdullah has worked hard and successfully to have friendly relations with all their neighbours, including Israel, and to formulate a common Arab position on the Israel-Palestine problem. Post Annapolis, President Bush is about to arrive in the region, on his first ever visit there (apart from Iraq) so there is an air of anticipation and hope, tinged with concern at the outcome.
As a consequence of the Iraq war, Iran gets ever stronger and slowly but surely Arab countries are having to confront the reality of this. It is simply true that the Iraq war has enabled Iran to move towards its historic aspiration of dominance of the region. The naval incident yesterday in the Strait of Hormuz was a timely reminder of Iran’s activities. Yet Jordan, whilst recognising this, overwhemingly wants some sort of resolution of the Palestine issue. That is what the meetings with Mr Bush are primarily all about.
President Sarkozy was in Jordan too. He continues with vigour to pursue the French national interest in the region. By comparison, British influence, despite our historic connections and understanding, is a pale shadow of the past. A lamentable legacy of this Labour government is the diminution of our respect and authority abroad, our inability to make independent judgements in our national interest. We heard this repeatedly in Jordan.
It has taken ten years of Labour for us actually now to be punching below our weight. It is not in our interests, or anybody else’s, that this should so palpably be the case.