British FM: Al-Qaeda using Palestinian suffering as excuse for violence

UK's David Miliband says terror organization uses Israel-Palestinian conflict to promote Mideast unrest, calls for prompt solution in order to 'remove the excuse'
AFP

British Foreign Minister David Miliband warned Tuesday that "contagion" could spread from Iraq across the Middle East, urging the West to talk to all the country's neighbors to head off the threat.

Miliband also underlined the need for an urgent solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict to remove an "excuse" for al-Qaeda to foment unrest in Iraq and elsewhere.

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"Al-Qaeda are using the suffering of the Palestinians as an excuse for violence," he said in a keynote address to the ruling Labor Party's annual conference.

"We need to remove the excuse. We need urgent progress to address Israeli security and Palestinian rights through the only solution, a two-state solution in the Middle East," he added.

Miliband set out principles of a "second wave" of Labour foreign policy under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who succeeded Tony Blair in June.

Blair controversially led Britain to join forces with the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Brown is set to announce next month whether Britain plans to keep forces in the south of the country, and for how long.

Miliband warned that the Iraq conflict could have serious consequences for the wider region: "We need to work with all the neighbors of Iraq to reconcile Sunnis and Shias, to prevent that conflict first fragmenting the country and then spreading like a contagion across the Middle East," he said.

Under Blair London notably promoted closer contacts with Syria, while Britain was one of three European countries, along with France and Germany, which spearheaded failed attempts to urge Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions.