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Iraq is a factor, admits Blair

Hasan Suroor

LONDON: For the first time, British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Tuesday grudgingly acknowledged Iraq as a factor behind terrorism, but he insisted that terrorists were using the situation there as an "excuse.''

Replying to a question about the link between Iraq and increase in terrorism at a press conference in Downing Street, Mr. Blair retorted that he had "never said'' that Iraq had "nothing to do'' with terrorism.

"But whatever excuses they [terrorists] give, we should not give an inch to them — not in Iraq, not in Afghanistan, not in Palestine.''

Mr. Blair's remarks came as an opinion showed that a significant majority of Britons believed that his policy on Iraq had given a boost to terrorists. In a Populus poll for The Times, 64 per cent of the voters said that his decision to take Britain to war in Iraq had "increased the risk of terrorist attacks like the ones this month in London.'' Fifty-five per cent of those who held this view were Labour Party supporters.

Repeatedly challenged over his Iraq policy and its effect on terrorism, Mr. Blair said: "Let us expose the obscenity of these people [terrorists] saying it is concern for Iraq that drives them to terrorism. If it is concern for Iraq then why are they driving a car bomb into the middle of a group of children and killing them?"

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