Blair calls for new West Asia strategy

Los Angeles, Aug 2: British Prime Minister Tony Blair today called for a rethink of the West's strategy to defeat extremism in the West Asia once the immediate Israel-Lebanon crisis is resolved.

He also accused Iran and Syria of helping extremists in Iraq and backing militant groups in Lebanon and Palestine.

''There is an arc of extremism now stretching across the Middle East and touching with increasing definition countries far outside that region,'' Blair said in a speech to the World Affairs Council, a non-profit organisation in Los Angeles.

The thrust of his address was that the West must win the battle of values if it is to defeat global extremism. ''This is war, but of a completely unconventional kind,'' he said.

''Unless we reappraise our strategy, unless we revitalise the broader global agenda on poverty, climate change, trade, and ...

bend every sinew of our will to making peace between Israel and Palestine, we will not win,'' he said.

''And this is a battle we must win.'' Blair, who has been heavily criticised at home for siding with the United States over the 21-day-old war between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas, said the international community must continue to do all it can to halt the hostilities.

''Once that has happened, we must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us,'' he said.

''To defeat it will need an alliance of moderation that paints a different future in which Muslim, Jew and Christian, Arab and Western, wealthy and developing nations can make progress in peace and harmony with each other.'' His speech came as three British soldiers were killed in ghanistan and one was killed in Basra in southern Iraq.

Battle over Islam

Blair said the war in the West Asia was in part a fight between ''reactionary Islam and moderate mainstream Islam'' and that Western intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan had turned into ''existential battles for reactionary Islam.'' ''We posed a threat not to their activities simply: but to their values, to the roots of their existence.'' Al Qaeda, Syria and Iran felt threatened by the prospect of Afghanistan and Iraq becoming ''tolerant democracies,'' he said, and this had led to the creation of ''new alliances.''

''So in Iraq, Syria allowed al Qaeda operatives to cross the border. Iran has supported extremist Shia there. The purpose of the terrorism in Iraq is absolutely simple: carnage, causing sectarian hatred, leading to civil war,'' he said.

Hizbollah was armed by Iran, which was also financing militant elements in Palestinian group Hamas, he said.

Syria supported Hizbollah and housed hard-line leaders of Hamas, he said.

Blair is wrapping up a five-day visit to the United States during which he held talks with President George W. Bush over the West Asia crisis.

Reuters