Optimism dashed
- 31 Jul 06, 09:15 PM
San Francisco International Airport: "These are sovereign governments, not puppets on a string". Thus the PM's official spokesman sought to explain why Tony Blair did not believe that calling for an immediate ceasefire would change anything on the ground in Lebanon. Gone was the optimism of only 12 hours earlier when Tony Blair talked of there being "a real chance" of getting an end to hostility.
When Mr Blair spoke to his Israeli opposite number he clearly did not hear what he hoped to hear. Mr Olmert is not ready to call a ceasefire in the coming days and insists that he will only be willing to do so once an international force moves into southern Lebanon.
So the next Blair phone call was to President Chirac. France are the former imperial power, they are in the chair of the Security Council and are expected to lead any international force. The problem is that they say that their troops will only go in once there's a political deal and not a day before. Mr Chirac, unlike Tony Blair, has been willing to criticise Israel and, indeed, his foreign minister has sugested that the carnage in Qana could have been avoided if Britain and the US had followed France's lead.
So, as we prepare to take off from San Francisco to Los Angeles the diplomatic augurs look poor. The backroom boys and girls from Number Ten who thought this would be a leisurely trip to the sun are set to have yet another broken night's sleep. As their boss snores they take messages from diplomats in the Middle East, at the UN and back at base in Number Ten and they set up calls with world leaders once the PM awakes. They've never had a trip quite like this one.
