Tony Blair today waded into the battle for hearts and minds in the Arab world by arguing that the United States and Britain were right to go to war in Iraq.
In an article for newspapers in the Middle East, including the influential Egyptian weekly al-Ahram, Blair wrote: ”I believe that history will judge that we made the right choice. Our quarrel is not with the Iraqi people but with Saddam, his sons, and his barbarous regime which has brought misery and terror to their country.”
The prime minister’s letter came amid concern that the US and Britain were losing the propaganda war with Baghdad. TV images of dead or injured civilians have inflamed Arab opinion, while dogged Iraqi resistance has stirred Arab nationalist pride despite President Saddam’s reputation as a tyrant.
Protests today in Morocco, traditionally a US ally, showed what Blair is up against. The demonstrations turned violent when 200 000 people marched against the US. Protesters carried coffins representing ”Arab martyrs” and waved posters referring to Bush as a ”vampire of Arab blood”.
Government ministers even took part in the demonstration in a country with traditionally strong ties with the US. In a signal of displeasure with America from the very top, King Mohammed VI yesterday announced the opening of a bank account to take in donations for ”brother Iraqis”.
Al-Ahram’s editor Ibrahim Nafie, meanwhile, told readers that the war was ”unjust” and that London and Washington were making their own ”law of the jungle” by showing ”disrespect” for the UN.
Blair pledged that British military forces would withdraw from Iraq as soon as practicable and said that Britain hoped to see the early establishment of a transitional civilian administration.
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Blair assured Arab readers that he wanted to see ”real progress” on the Middle East peace process and that he and President George Bush would help deliver the road map for a lasting settlement for Israelis and Palestinians by 2005. ”I genuinely believe the course we have taken will not only make the Middle East and the wider world a safer place but, by removing Saddam, will also be a blessing for all the Iraqi people,” he said.
But while Blair is pushing for a role for the UN in a post-Saddam Iraq, he faces US plans to turn Iraq into a virtual US protectorate. As for the Middle East road map, that is running into trouble as the right-wing Israeli government under Ariel Sharon seeks to heavily modify the plan in its favour.
Earlier the home secretary, David Blunkett, acknowledged the difficulty in winning over Arab public opinion, with the way the conflict was developing.
He told BBC1’s Breakfast with Frost: ”There are real dangers that the coverage in particular in the Arabic media will harden hearts and I think we’ve got a major task once the conflict’s over to pull people on board”.
On the same programme, the former UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali urged the international community to try to prevent the war spreading across the Middle East.
”What is more dangerous [is] that this war is reinforcing the position of the fundamentalist in the Arab world,” Boutros-Ghali said.
In his article, Blair painted an idyllic picture of a future Iraq.
”I want all Iraqis — Arab, Assyrian, Kurd, Turkoman, Sunni, Shiite, Christian and all other groups — to share in the fruits of this new, prosperous Iraq, united within its current borders,” he wrote. ”An Iraq free from tyranny, fear and repression, where thousands each year are no longer forced from their homes or imprisoned, tortured or executed.” – Guardian Unlimited Â