Britain's Hillary problem:
British PM's Wife Slammed for Suicide Bomb Comments
June 18, 2002 02:01 PM ET Email this article Printer friendly version
By Dominic Evans
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's wife, Cherie, was slammed by political opponents on Tuesday for comments they said appeared to justify Palestinian suicide bombers.
Speaking hours after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 19 Israelis on a Jerusalem bus, she told reporters: "As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up, you are never going to make progress."
Mrs. Blair, a human rights lawyer, made her controversial comments next to Queen Rania of Jordan at a charity appeal for medical aid for Palestinians.
She drew instant condemnation from opposition Conservatives, and Israeli diplomats expressed regret at her remarks and their timing.
"These are most unfortunate words by the prime minister's wife," Conservative foreign affairs spokesman Michael Ancram said. He said they would cause "massive offence to the families of the victims."
"There can never be any justification for terrorist violence, particularly of the kind we saw in Israel this morning," Ancram said.
The Israeli embassy said it regretted "any public statements which might be interpreted as expressing understanding for Palestinian terrorism -- particularly on a day on which 19 innocent Israeli lives were taken by a suicide bomber."
"No political grievance or circumstance can justify the willful targeting of civilians for political gain," it said.
Mrs. Blair has run foul Britain's opposition before, with one Liberal Democrat parliamentarian calling her a "super-minister without portfolio" after she chaired a series of seminars in Downing Street earlier this year.
SPOKESWOMAN SAYS SORRY
A spokeswoman for Mrs. Blair said she condemned Tuesday's bombing and was sorry "if any offence has been taken from the interpretation of her comments."
"She did not, and nor would she ever condone suicide bombers or say they had no choice," the spokeswoman said.
She added that Mrs. Blair agreed with a statement by Queen Rania that "the killing of innocent civilians is not acceptable, irrespective of perpetrator or victim. Killings will not lead to political solutions."
The controversy forced her husband to turn his attention from European Union politics to rally to her defense. He said she had merely stressed that the path to a peace deal lay through negotiations, not violence.
"I hope that no one misdescribes her sentiments or mine," he told reporters in his Downing Street office. "Everybody in this situation feels nothing but the deepest sympathy for the people that lost their lives in the latest terrorist attack.
"But of course it is true that we need to make sure that there is hope for the future and the hope lies in a political process taking the place of the extremists, the terrorists and the suicide bombers," Blair said.
"I am quite sure that was what Cherie was saying."
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