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Britain Opposes International Court Review of Security Fence

(Guardian-UK) The British government Friday will infuriate Arab opinion by supporting Israel in a legal challenge to the construction of its controversial barrier along the West Bank. The Foreign Office is to lodge an objection at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, which is scheduled to review the barrier's legality. Foreign Office minister Lady Symons, in an interview with the Jewish Chronicle published Friday, says a hearing at the international court on the issue of the barrier would "serve to politicize the court in a way for which it was not designed." Part of the Foreign Office's fear - one only expressed in private - is that a precedent could be created of the General Assembly referring controversial issues to the court. Britain could be vulnerable if a majority of countries were to choose to refer the legality of the Iraq war to the court. The Foreign Office argues in the submission that normally the court only intervenes in boundary disputes if both parties agree - and in this case, Israel does not. The Foreign Office said Thursday: "Our concerns relate to the role of the court, not the legality of the route of the fence." The deadline for submissions is Friday. Australia is to oppose the hearing, and Germany is also likely to do so. An attempt to find a common European position on the hearing had to be abandoned.
2004-01-30 00:00:00
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