Blair Pushes For Broad Mideast Strategy

British PM Tells Iraq Study Group That End To Israel-Palestinian Conflict Necessary For Iraq Peace

(CBS/AP)  Prime Minister Tony Blair told the advisory group reviewing strategy on Iraq on Tuesday that a push for peace across the Middle East and help for Baghdad to root out sectarianism in its security forces were key to stemming bloodshed, his official spokesman said.

Speaking privately via video link to the Iraq Study Group, Blair set no timetable for the withdrawal of British or other coalition troops from Iraq, the spokesman said, but had stressed the importance of what he called in a speech Monday a “whole Middle East strategy” to counter militancy around the region.

The British prime minister, President Bush's closest ally in Iraq, emphasized the importance of a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he said was “important in its own right, but also to take away the issue that was most exploited by extremist elements around the region,” Blair said, according to the spokesman, who discussed Blair's comments on customary condition of anonymity, in keeping with government policy.

Blair said a positive strategy for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would help Britain and the U.S. win the support of moderate Muslims and increase pressure on Iran and Syria to work for peace, the spokesman said. He told the group he believed Iran was “a strategic threat to the region,” his spokesman said.

“The only way to deal with Iran, he said, was not to back down on our demands, but to take away their ability to exploit Muslim opinion and to confront both it and Syria with the strategic choice of whether to be supportive of the solution, or face isolation,” Blair said.

The isolation of Iran and Syria would likely have harsh repercussions for their economies, he said.

He said Blair had listed three key areas in which Britain, the United States and their allies should give support to the Iraqi government.

Blair told Baker's panel the Iraqi government needed support to distribute funding fairly across the country, to root out sectarianism — particularly within the police — and to “better equip the Iraqi army,” the spokesman said.

“He said he believed the Iraqi government increasingly wanted to take control of its own affairs and to do so in a way which brought together the country as a whole,” Blair's spokesman said.

Mr. Bush and senior White House officials met Monday with members of the panel, which is led by Republican and Bush family friend James A. Baker III and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton.

Baker's group, which aims to deliver recommendations on strategy in Iraq to Bush by the end of the year, also has interviewed outgoing Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

On Monday, a pair of Democrats publicly called for some form of troop withdrawal from Iraq.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., who will likely take over the Senate Armed Services committee, called for U.S. troops to be redeployed over the course of four to six months.

Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania, a Vietnam war veteran and outspoken critic of the Iraq war told CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric he wants a "complete redeployment of our troops out of Iraq over a period of time. And give the Iraqis the incentive to take over their own destiny."

Americans are hoping the report will offer a more effective policy on Iraq, an issue that cost Republicans heavily in last week's midterm elections and put Democrats in charge of Congress.

About 7,200 British troops are based in southern Iraq, and Blair repeated to Baker's group that they would stay there until local forces could take on security responsibilities, his spokesman said. A total of 125 British troops have died in Iraq.

Blair's comments to the panel echoed his speech Monday, when called on Iran to cease support for extremists and comply with demands to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

[djermano]

It is good for Blair to comment, but he is quite naive. The Israeli Palestinain struggle has been going on for over 50 years.. They have made Iraq another conflict, which will not go away.

Iran feels threatened so they are after the bomb.

Palestine I think should give up Israel. They should not take land that has been the subject of bloodshed.

Iran should give up the bomb, and Israel should stop its military intervention.

[icorus]

mr. Blair is right...He has a clear understanding of the world......I wish more of the world would lissen to him...

[sharncedar]

C'mon, Blair is going to give advice on Iraq, please. That's ridiculous.

[sharncedar]

In response to the other posters, we need to take the oil from Iraq, the notion that the world's resources such as oil belong to the squatter nations that happen to be physically over the resevoirs is archaic. Oil is a resource that belongs to the whole world, it is far underground, it is critical to people's survival, no nation has ownership of it. The oil came from billions of years ago, it doesn't belong to Iraq or the Iraqi people, it belongs to the whole world, it is underground and the underground pools span over the boundaries of nations thus it is an international resource.

In that sense we will take it ;)

Other than the oil, who cares about Iraq, you won't even see it in the news once the oil is pumping. Sad but true.

[greed1sin]

Greed for Iraq's oil will hinder any peace action in Iraq. Sunni and Shiite Arab needs to be separated. The Shiite in Baghdad region needs to be moved to south Shiite area. Saddam Hussein needs to be tried and sentenced by International Court in Netherland. The power of Sunni and Shiite Arab in Middle East needs to be balanced to prevent war.

[greed1sin]

Comment on US to Iraq:
The imposing constitution of Iraq cannot satisfy the 3 kinds of people there. It will be torn down sooner or later. It is not worth for U.S. to spend so much money and lives to mind others%u2019 business. The following steps can solve Iraq problems and reduce U.S. burden.
1. Iraq can be disintegrated into 3 countries, Sunni Arab, Shiite Arab, and Kurdish. Each country will have its own government, police, and military. United Nation can help to maintain the peace talk.
2. The oil development right can be owned by a company formed from these 3 countries. The right can be divided into lots of stock shares and some of them can be sold to private companies. The 3 countries can still hold major part of their stock shares.
3. All the projects within these 3 countries should be managed by their own governments.
4. United Nation, World Bank, and IMF can loan money to help the construction for the 3 countries.
With the above, U.S. does not need to spend so much money and lives. Each country will set up its own political institution stably. U.S. will not be tagged as an empire by imposing its own way to others and wants to grab resources like oil from other countries.