Blair Sees Chance For Progress on Middle East Conflict

Region Is Facing a 'Critical Moment'

LONDON, Nov. 16 -- Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday offered hope for progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying that "sensible Arab and Muslim countries" now see "strategic reasons" for finding a solution and that new initiatives could come within weeks.

"This is an opportunity for us if we are prepared to seize it now," said Blair, citing leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan as among those who "want to make progress" on an issue he called the "crux" of problems in the Middle East.

Blair, in an interview with The Washington Post at his 10 Downing Street office, declined to provide specifics but said British officials were holding private talks with Middle Eastern governments as well as the Bush administration about measures "to move this forward."

The prime minister is also planning a trip in the next few weeks to the Middle East, which he said was facing a "critical moment."

Blair, who has been President Bush's chief foreign ally on Iraq, said he had no regrets about the 2003 invasion that toppled the government of Saddam Hussein, even though the continuing war has cost him dearly in British public opinion.

"If you left Saddam there, you would have had a whole stack of different problems, and in the end you'd have had to have dealt with Iraq at some point," said Blair, who spoke with passion and certainty about his policies despite growing demand in Britain and the United States for a reassessment of Iraq strategy.

Discussing remarks he made Tuesday during a closed-door video conference with the Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan panel in Washington reviewing Iraq policy, Blair said that any solution to Iraq must begin with progress on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"Israel-Palestine is the one issue that, unresolved, allows extremists to gain purchase on the more moderate elements of the Muslim and Arab world," he said, sipping coffee next to the marble mantelpiece in his office.

Blair, who has said he will step down before next September after serving since 1997, said Islamic extremists are using the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a propaganda tool, "so there is a huge additional dimension to its importance."

He said the "next few months are critical" on the Israeli-Palestinian issue: "My worry is there is increasing not just poverty and despair on the Palestinian side but also disintegration, and that is very dangerous."

"So we either decide that we are going to take this moment and use it to drive forward, or obviously there's a danger that the whole region takes a wrong turn," he said.

Blair brushed aside a question about whether he was being unrealistic to think significant progress was possible toward a solution that has eluded a long succession of world leaders. He said focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian problem was "the only realistic thing to do."