18 December 2007
Speaking at a Downing Street press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the PM announced that the UK will provide $500 million in aid to help boost development in Palestine as part of a drive for a 2008 peace deal.
Read the press conference
Prime Minister:
Can I say thank you for joining us this evening. It has been a great pleasure for me to welcome President Abbas to London and to welcome the delegation that has come to see me with him.
I wanted to first of all congratulate President Abbas on the success of Annapolis and the success yesterday of the Paris Donors Conference. I believe that the success of these two events gives a real message to the rest of the world that progress is being made, and I pay tribute to the leadership of President Abbas.
I am delighted that the conference yesterday raised over $7 billion, including, as some of you may know, a major United Kingdom commitment of half a billion dollars - 500 million dollars. And this is a solid basis for progress upon which we will build. I believe that these pledges yesterday underline the international community’s commitment that 2008 is a year of great opportunity - the creation of the viable state of Palestine alongside the secure state of Israel.
I agreed with President Abbas in our discussions that this means viable politically, economically and geographically. It also means a lifting of the conditions that have choked development in Palestinian territories and a freeze on settlement building. At the same time we wish to see a cessation of the rocket attacks on southern Israel, and I know that President Abbas will say something about that too.
Can I repeat that the United Kingdom will do whatever it can to support the process. We will work closely with President Abbas and with Prime Minister: Olmert, whom I talked to at the weekend. We will work with Tony Blair in his mission to make it possible for economic development to move forward. The Palestinian reform and development plan is for us a very important part of this and we strongly support the work of Tony Blair and Prime Minister: Salam Fayed to deliver it.
We also discussed a follow-up conference, an investors conference, and the UK will co-sponsor an Investors Conference in Bethlehem in March or in April of 2008 and we stand ready to do everything else that is necessary to promote investment in the Palestinian areas to make it possible for unemployment to fall, for poverty to be reduced and for jobs to be created.
President Abbas, thank you for coming to London to meet me and I wish you well in the talks that you will now have in detail with Prime Minister: Olmert and the various committees that we hope will start meeting very soon to look at the detail that arises from the Annapolis settlement.
President Abbas:
Thank you very much Mr Prime Minister: to receive us today after a very important and successful meeting in Paris. Coming after the Paris meeting is very important to London here because of your position in terms of supporting the peace process.
I would like to congratulate you and wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
I would like also to thank you for the generous support that you have been giving to the Palestinian people and Authority. We would like to also extend our acknowledgment and thanks for your great support to the Palestinian issue and to the peace process, and this basically reflects exactly your commitment to the peace process and to stability in the region.
We know that the Annapolis meeting and the Paris Conference are both selling basically the peace process. We are emphasising, and we are sure, that we will reach an agreement hopefully in the year 2008. We believe that if we have to push for the peace process and for negotiations, serious negotiations, there should be all kinds of circumventing of any kind of impediments to the peace process.
We believe that the settlements and settlement activities are major impediments towards the progress of the peace process. We basically denounce the military Israeli insurgence to Gaza, by the same token also we condemn the launching of rockets from Gaza to Israel because all these are major impediments to the peace process and to security.
We are pleased from your position as your government in supporting the peace process, whether economically, politically and in every aspect, we believe that you play a major and pivotal role in the region and your personal involvement Prime Minister: is a source of power for us and we would like to continue working closely with you.
We thank you again for receiving us here in London.
Question:
Moving away from the subject of the Middle East momentarily, is nationalising Northern Rock the only option that you have got left Prime Minister:?
Prime Minister:
Our concern in Northern Rock is to ensure the stability of the whole economy and to protect the interests of depositors and savers. And while we have never ruled out any option whatsoever, of course our preference all along has been for a private buyer, and as you know a considerable amount of discussion is already taking place, which has been facilitated by the announcements that have been made in the last few days. We will take the action that is necessary to ensure that our economy can withstand the global financial turbulence that is happening. I think you will see that the British economy is in a position with low inflation, as the figures were announced today, to withstand much of the global financial turbulence. And I do believe that we have already taken the action that is necessary to ensure greater stability in the financial sector and we will continue to do this. So while we have always said that we will never rule out any option, we will continue with the course of action that we are pursuing at the moment.
Question:
A question for both, particularly for President Abbas. With all these donations, and £250 million of British taxpayers’ money, what mechanism is there actually in place, and transparency, to make sure that the money is not squandered and is being accountable for what is spending, we know where it is going, and was that actually raised in the meeting? And Prime Minister:, with the continuous loss of data from the Inland Revenue and from the DVL, do you still think that the ID card is a good idea?
Prime Minister:
I think these are two separate questions.
President Abbas:
The international community is very confident with the Palestinian Authority and they know that the Palestinian Authority works through transparency. Of course the donor countries have received … the government’s policy with all confidence. There is the HL Committee that will be you know having a certain mechanism in monitoring all these projects and all these developments.
Prime Minister:
You ask about identity cards. Can I just make it clear to people that the information that is being asked for in identity cards is exactly similar to the information that is asked for people when they apply for passports, and it is not financial information. But the whole purpose of biometrics, which is used in identity cards, is to make sure that the information cannot be used without the biometrics of the individual person. So it provides a more secure means by which information is processed. And I think in this whole debate about identity cards and the use of biometrics we have got to remember these two things: first of all that the information that is being asked for in identity cards is limited; and secondly, it can only be triggered of course by the use of biometrics, which provides a guarantee to people that their identity will not be stolen.
Question:
Prime Minister: Mr Brown, can I ask you a little bit more about the Investors Conference you have announced? Who is going to host it, who is going to be invited and who do you see as the key investors who are going to make a difference? And on another matter, you are being urged today by MPs to act without delay to reform the rules on political donations, honours and peerages. Now that Mr Cameron is facing his own Donorgate, how willing are you to respond on this matter as a matter of urgency?
Prime Minister:
It is pretty clear on political donations that the reforms that have been proposed by Mr Hayden Phillips in his review are the basis on which further work should be done. Now I have suggested that we move forward on that basis. I believe that other political parties, but not including the Conservatives, want to do so. And I hope that the Conservatives will realise soon that the basis on which they entered the discussions with Hayden Phillips, their approval of his first recommendations in the spring, that is the basis on which to move forward rather than the rejection of his proposals that has come latterly. I think there is the possibility, if the Conservatives would change their position, for an all-party consensus to make sure that political funding is done in a far more transparent way in the future. That is what I want to achieve.
On the Conference of Investors, I welcome the fact that the United States of America and Britain together will host the conference in Bethlehem. It is an important signal about the need for investment to create jobs and prosperity and opportunity in the Palestinian areas. I have been working for some time with fellow colleagues on what could be done - industrial parks, infrastructure development, micro credit, small business schemes that would advance loans and grants to make possible economic development - and I believe there will be international support from a number of countries in Europe and America. I believe also that Israeli businessmen and women will be prepared to contribute to this process. So we are optimistic that the Bethlehem Conference will be a success and we stand ready, President, to follow up the Bethlehem Conference with other initiatives that would make it possible for people from all over the world to contribute to the economic development that will help your people.
Question:
Prime Minister:, is economic help to the Palestinian Authority the only way forward? What about political support, which is badly needed? And to the President, Annapolis promised a political process, where does that stand?
President Abbas:
Yes Annapolis has been an historical opportunity to end the conflict in the Middle East. For the last 7 years there has been a total hole and there was no political process you know going on. This is a golden opportunity and we have to exploit it to the maximum. We are aware that there are a lot of impediments for this process you know to be re-engaged. However, this should not discourage us from continuing in the process itself. We don’t say that these are easy problems, there are a lot of complexities, but it is our duty that we have to overcome these complexities. We don’t have any guarantees personally but we have to work with others, with the Arabs, with the international community, in order to create those guarantees for this process to succeed - and with Israel of course.
Prime Minister:
And let me just add that I congratulate President Abbas and Prime Minister: Olmert not only on the success of achieving the Annapolis agreement and now of course the Paris Conference, but on their determination to overcome the obstacles that exist to moving the talks forward to a successful conclusion. And to answer directly the question that was put about what level of support we can give, we will not only give the financial support that we announced yesterday, and stand ready to support the investment intentions so that we can have jobs and prosperity in the area, but of course we will join with our European colleagues in giving policing and security support where necessary, and that is something that we talked about earlier today. So our support for this process is in many different ways because we are determined to work with President Abbas and Prime Minister: Olmert to overcome all obstacles to the achievement in 2008 of a successful solution of these issues. And I am pleased that President Bush is going to visit in the next few weeks and I know that President Abbas is determined that the talks will start in the next few days and I believe that with goodwill and with a determination to overcome the obstacles we can make very speedy progress.
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