Editing Carl Bildt (section)

===Middle East===

Bildt has been questioned for his role as a member of the International Advisory Council of the [[Committee for the Liberation of Iraq]], a group with ties to the [[George W. Bush administration|Bush administration]] pushing for an [[Iraq War|invasion of Iraq in 2003]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/kultur/story/0,2789,918495,00.html|title=Vad Carl Bildt gjort för kriget|newspaper=[[Aftonbladet]]|first=Mikael|last=Nyberg|date=27 October 2006|language=sv|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070124095825/http://www.aftonbladet.se/vss/kultur/story/0,2789,918495,00.html|archive-date=24 January 2007|df=dmy-all}}.</ref>

On 8 April 2008, during his visit in [[Israel]] and the [[Palestinian Authority]], Bildt gave an interview to Swedish state radio, where he responded to a question on whether it would be possible to strike a peace deal without the involvement of the Palestinian group [[Hamas]], which remained under international boycott. He responded that the Palestinian [[Fatah]]-backed government could deal with Israel, in the same way that it was possible for the Israeli government to make peace with Fatah over the objections of the former Israeli prime minister [[Benjamin Netanyahu]], who, similarly to Hamas opposed a two-state deal. Israeli officials issued very strongly worded condemnations of this, describing it as "horrible and stupid" and an example of "chutzpah" and "complete ignorance of the Middle East", on the grounds that they saw it as comparing Hamas and Netanyahu as equals.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://fr.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1207649975283&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull |first=Gil |last=Hoffman |title=Swedish FM likens Netanyahu to Hamas |date=10 April 2008 |access-date=28 March 2009 |work=[[The Jerusalem Post]] }}{{dead link|date=November 2016 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref>

In 2012, Bildt said he saw no problem with exporting [[List of major arms industry corporations by country|Swedish weapons]] to [[Saudi Arabia]]. According to Bildt, "Would the situation in the world be better if they had bought French manufactured ones instead?" Bildt called friendly Saudi Arabia as a "family business" and said that he sees Saudi Prince [[Turki bin Faisal Al Saud]] "quite regularly".<ref>{{cite news |title=Saudi Arabia a 'family business': Bildt |url=https://www.thelocal.se/20120404/40080 |work=The Local |date=4 April 2012 |access-date=21 November 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181122051747/https://www.thelocal.se/20120404/40080 |archive-date=22 November 2018 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 2015, Bildt criticized Sweden's foreign minister [[Margot Wallström]] for damaging Saudi-Swedish relations. Wallström tweeted criticism of Saudi Arabia's flogging of Saudi blogger and activist [[Raif Badawi]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Clash between Sweden and Saudi Arabia escalates as ambassador is withdrawn |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/mar/11/clash-sweden-saudi-arabia-escalates-ambassador-withdrawn-human-rights |work=The Guardian |date=11 March 2015}}</ref>