BRITAIN: British prime minister Tony Blair has raised the possibility of "a new partnership" with Iran - while warning "isolation" will be the consequence of continued flouting of its international obligations and support for terrorism in Lebanon and Iraq.
He set out the choice in a speech last night again calling for a "whole Middle East" strategy uniting moderate Arab and Muslim voices in a push for peace in Israel and Palestine, as well as in Iraq, while "empowering those with a moderate and modern view of the faith of Islam everywhere". Addressing the annual lord mayor's banquet in London, Mr Blair challenged "a fundamental misunderstanding" that this was about changing policy on Syria and Iran.
And he was robust in defence of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq, making clear he supported America "willingly", while stressing that Euroscepticism and anti-Americanism were "the surest route" to the destruction of Britain's national interest.
While there were specific national factors at play in Iraq and Afghanistan, Mr Blair told his audience there were a common set of characteristics in the ideology and methods fuelling violence in both countries. And he prefaced his imminent evidence to the Baker commission in the US with this warning: "It is the same ideology, the same methods that have seen thousands of people die in acts of terrorism across the world. In Iraq, the pressure from such terrorism has changed the nature of the battle. Its purpose now is plain: to provoke civil war."
Mr Blair said the violence therefore was neither an accident "or a result of faulty planning" but part of a deliberate strategy.
"It is the direct result of outside extremists teaming up with internal extremists - al-Qaeda with the Sunni insurgents, Iranian-backed Shia militia - to foment hatred and thus throttle at birth the possibility of non-sectarian democracy."
This was crucial, Mr Blair said, to understanding "the right strategy to combat it". And just as the situation was evolving, "so our strategy should evolve to meet it", he continued.
Inside Iraq this required: a strong political compact led by the Iraqi government to bring parties together, with clear commitments to non-sectarian government and to democracy; building Iraqi governing capability, especially in the disbursement of money for reconstruction and rebuilding the economy; and plugging any gaps in training, equipment and command and control in the Iraqi army and helping the new interior ministry root out sectarianism in the police which in turn would allow the transition to Iraqi control.
What was happening in the Middle East today was "not complex", said Mr Blair: "We all want Iran to suspend its enrichment process which allowed to continue will give them a nuclear weapon. Under the agreement we brokered in June, the US has said they will talk to Iran direct for the first time in 30 years, if they abide by the UN demand to suspend enrichment. But Iran is refusing to do it."
Instead, he said, "they are using the pressure points in the region to thwart us" - that way painting the US and Britain as the aggressors, inflaming "the Arab street" and creating "political turmoil in our democratic politics". Mr Blair said this strategy would only be defeated by an equally clear one, "to relieve those pressures one by one and then, from a position of strength, to talk" - offering Iran a strategic choice.
"They help the Middle East peace process, not hinder it; they stop supporting terrorism in Lebanon or Iraq; and they abide by, not flout, their international obligations," said Mr Blair.
"In that case a new partnership is possible. Or alternatively they face the consequences of not doing so - isolation."