Tuesday, Apr 29, 2003
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By Hasan Suroor
In his first public comment on Iran's alleged role in stoking an anti-U.S. Shia backlash in Iraq , Mr. Blair asked Tehran not to try to "destabilise" the country and said Britain would be taking up the issue with the Iranian leadership. At a press conference at Downing Street this morning, he said Britain understood Iran's "concerns" and the fact that it had a "very close interest" in Iraq but it was important for Teheran to realise that it would need to behave responsibly if it wanted to play a role in the "process" of government formation in Baghdad. "We are in dialogue with Iran," he said. Mr. Blair refused to be drawn into the U.S. Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld's remarks that an "Iranian-style" Islamic government was "not going to happen" in Iraq, but his warning to Iran clearly suggested that Britain too would not countenance any attempt to set up a theocratic regime in Baghdad. He said the vast majority of Iraqis, given a chance, would want to live in a country which guaranteed "freedom and security." He also indicated that government-formation in Iraq would be a long-drawn-out affair, saying it would be a "stage-by-stage" process starting with an interim administration. Mr. Blair had a strong message for Syria. He warned that it should stop supporting "terrorism' in the region but dismissed as a "conspiracy" theory speculation that Syria could be next on Washington's hit list. "I have made it clear that there are no plans to invade Syria," he said, but insisted on "cooperation" both from Syria and Iran in fighting terrorism. The 90-minute press conference was dominated by questions about Iraq, particularly the coalition forces' failure to find any weapons of mass destruction. Mr Blair advised his critics not to start "crowing" too soon about WMDs, and insisted that these existed and would be found in due course. He mocked at suggestions that Americans might end up planting weapons. He said the reason for the delay in finding them was that the Saddam Hussein regime had six months to conceal them. Mr. Blair dismissed as "mystifying" reports in the British media that the former Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Tariq Aziz, was likely to be brought to Britain under a deal that would give him a safe haven in exchange for information about Mr. Hussein's regime.
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