Blair warns against Iran threat
Friday, 19 Oct 2007 09:36
Mr Blair is wildly popular in the US
Tony Blair has compared Islamic fundamentalism to the "rising fascism" of the 1920s and 1930s in his first major speech since leaving Downing Street.
The former prime minister and current
Middle East Quartet envoy warned the Alfred Smith Memorial Foundation dinner at the Waldorf-Astoria hotel in New York against being "forced into retreat" in the ideological struggle.
He was only the second Briton to have spoken at the prestigious dinner in its 62-year history – the first being Winston Churchill in 1947.
Much of the evening was filled with good humour and Mr Blair received the usual popularity he enjoys on the other side of the Atlantic.
But his speech nevertheless maintained its tone of warning throughout, with particular criticism reserved for the
Iranian government's adoption of the values he opposes.
"This ideology now has a state – Iran," he said.
"There is a tendency even now, even in some of our own circles, to believe that they are as they are because we have provoked them and if we left them alone they would leave us alone.
"I fear this is mistaken. They have no intention of leaving us alone."