Straw offers a shady excuse for political faux pas

[Khephra]

Straw offers a shady excuse for political faux pas

Jamie Wilson
Wednesday September 29, 2004
The Guardian

In the long and undistinguished history of the ill-judged handshake, Jack Straw's clasping palms with Robert Mugabe probably ranks below Neville Chamberlain's greeting of Adolf Hitler, especially since the latter followed it with a "Sieg heil".


snip................

The footage, shown on BBC2's Newsnight on Monday, shows Mr Mugabe sitting regally in a chair. Mr Straw, introduced by an aide to the man Britain has denounced for rigging elections, persecuting opponents and causing the economic collapse of Zimbabwe, pauses for a moment before stopping to offer his hand for what appears to be a weak shake. "Nice to see you, nice to see you," he says.

Mr Mugabe replies, "Nice to see you," before asking an adviser, "Who was that?" When told the president, fresh from delivering a scathing attack on Britain during the UN general assembly, is seen creasing up with laughter.

"I hadn't expected to see President Mugabe there," Mr Straw said later. "It was quite dark in that corner I was being pushed towards... then it transpired it was . But the fact that there is a serious disagreement between Zimbabwe and the United Kingdom does not mean you should then be discourteous or rude."

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1314927,00.html