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- WORLD
Blair, a target, soothes Arab feelings and maps out postwar vision
Hands on ... German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and President Bush talked war policy at the White House. Photo: AFP
By Simon Mann, Herald Correspondent in London
The British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, has flown to Oman on a third round of shuttle diplomacy, shoring up Arab elements of the anti-terror coalition and mapping out his vision for post-war reconstruction of Afghanistan.
But as the visit got under way a spokesman for a radical Islamic group was quoted as saying that Mr Blair had become a "legitimate target" for Muslims because of Britain's role in the attacks on Afghanistan.
From Lahore, Abdel-Rahman Saleem, spokesman for Islamic group al-Muhajiroun (the immigrants), which describes itself as "the voice, the eyes, the ears of Muslims", told the London-based Asharq al-Awsat: "This means that if any Muslim wanted to kill him or to get rid of him, I would not shed any tears."
The British Prime Minister's new push in the Arab world included talks en route in Geneva with Sheik Zayed, the leader of the United Arab Emirates, one of just three countries that recognised Kabul's ruling Taliban before the September 11 attacks.
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Mr Blair also took to the airwaves in a bid to counter Muslim criticism of the bombing campaign.
He gave an interview to the BBC World Service, his second in two days, and was subjected to a grilling by the
Qatar-based al-Jazeera satellite TV channel, during which he was accused of being "an enthusiast for war" and of jumping on the bandwagon of military action behind the US.
He flatly rejected allegations that he was as "hawkish" as Margaret Thatcher in her heyday and that he was merely out for revenge.
The interviewer told Mr Blair: "In your British justice, a person is not guilty unless proven guilty ... You are not trying to perform your justice, ie you want revenge rather than justice."
Mr Blair replied: "We don't want revenge. We do want justice and, of course, if the Taliban regime yielded Osama bin Laden up, and his network of terrorists, then they could have stood justice. But that is not what happened.''
Mr Blair ended his interview by breaking briefly into Arabic with the words: "Shakhran (thank-you) al-Jazeera".
In his meeting with Sheik Zayed, Mr Blair thanked the UAE - an important financial centre for the Gulf region - for severing its ties with the Taliban rulers and taking steps to choke off funding of bin Laden's al-Qaeda movement.
On Tuesday the UAE cabinet approved anti money laundering measures. Last month the central bank ordered a freeze on the assets of 26 "terrorist" groups and individuals blacklisted by the US.
Mr Blair, who mounted two previous whirlwind international trips to rally support for the anti-terror coalition, was planning to visit two more Arab states after Oman, where he was greeting some of the 20,000 forces involved in the biggest British military exercise since the Gulf War.
Later Mr Blair was meeting Oman's ruler, Sultan Qaboos.
Mr Blair's "rescue plan" for Afghanistan would involve a UN-led coalition in which the country's various ethnic groups would have a voice. The strategy would involve a Marshall Plan-style plan of reconstruction.
Mr Blair is adamant that the opposition Northern Alliance should not emerge as the sole benefactors of the US-led strikes.
"Once the conflict is over, we have then got to sit down with the people in Afghanistan and try and work out a stable and coherent plan for the future," he told the BBC.
He added that the West could ill-afford to abandon Afghanistan as it had done following the ejection of the Soviet army in the 1980s.
"We are not going to walk away again. We made that mistake in the past."
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