Britain faced fresh criticism of its Middle East policies on Thursday after publishing a human rights report that highlighted Hezbollah attacks on Israel but did not mention Israel's military response in Lebanon.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair angered many during the 34-day war in July and August by refusing to call for an early halt to the fighting. The conflict wreaked destruction on Lebanon and killed 1,200 people there, mostly civilians, as well as 157 Israelis, mainly soldiers.
In its annual human rights report, the British Foreign Office added Syria to its "major countries of concern" list as part of the report and said it was "deeply concerned" by Syria's support for Hezbollah.
It noted Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets into Israeli territory, adding: "These indiscriminate rocket attacks killed approximately 40 Israeli civilians and injured up to 2,000 more."
The report's section on Israel and the occupied territories made no reference to Israel's military response to the Shia guerrillas. "If they had time to include Hezbollah and the 40 victims of Hezbollah rockets - which Human Rights Watch thinks should have been in the report and we welcome that - they had time to do something on what the Israelis did in Lebanon, especially given the disproportionate number of casualties," said Tom Porteous, London director of Human Rights Watch.
Human rights group Amnesty International said it was concerned key issues had fallen through the gaps. "It is absolutely right that the government strongly criticise Hezbollah's rocket attacks, but deeply worrying that this report makes no specific mention of Israel's illegal targeting of Lebanese infrastructure...," Amnesty International UK Campaigns' Director Tim Hancock said.
Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said the publication date of the report had prevented the subject from being covered in more detail.