Blasts hit Green Zone during Blair visit

[Mark Gobell]

Blasts hit Green Zone during Blair visit

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070519/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_blair;_ylt=Akn OfcrZ1wm6fh5iNGKlLjSs0NUE

BAGHDAD - Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair, whose premiership has been dominated by his unpopular decision to join the Iraq war, arrived here on a farewell visit Saturday, and three mortar shells or rockets slammed into the compound where he met with Iraq's leaders.

The attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone wounded one person, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Lou Fintor. One round hit the British Embassy compound, security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

It was not known if Blair was in the embassy at the time, but he appeared to refer to the attack when he held a news conference with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and President Jalal Talabani after meeting with them privately.

A fourth projectile exploded just outside the Green Zone.

Blair, who was on his seventh and final visit to Iraq as Britain's prime minister, said he believed security was improving in Iraq, but acknowledged mortar attacks and terrorist attacks were still daily occurrences.

"Iraq was liberated from the terrible dictatorship of Saddam (Hussein) and now there are attempts to oppress it in a different ways with terrorism and violence," he said.

Blair said he told al-Maliki and Talabani that Britain would continue to support them after he left office in June, and he urged them to speed up reconciliation between Iraq's divided communities by calling new provincial elections and increasing efforts to bring tribal leaders and others linked to violence into the political process.

Blair appeared irritated at repeated news conference questions about levels of violence, saying Iraqi officials had assured him in talks that there were signs of progress on security.

"There is violence and terrorism in Iraq, but what they are saying is that there is also hope and change," Blair said.

During his 45-minute meeting with al-Maliki, which Talabani joined after it was under way, the British leader "injected a sense of urgency" into attempts to increase political representation for Sunnis, Blair's spokesman said.

Blair did not win an agreement from the Iraqi leaders to hold new provincial elections, said the spokesman, who briefs reporters only on condition of anonymity.

Blair had hoped provincial elections could take place in 2007 and that Sunni groups, who boycotted the last similar poll, would field candidates, the spokesman said.

He said tribal elders and community leaders who may be "connected with people who have committed violence" must be engaged with.

Coalition officials have been cautiously optimistic over evidence that some tribal leaders in Anbar province had ousted al-Qaida-linked insurgents hiding in their communities, Blair's spokesman said.

Britain does not favor talks with foreign terrorists, he said, but would support moves to bring those whose violence was motivated by "concerns about whether their community will have a place in the new Iraq" into the political sphere.

Blair, whose premiership has been dominated by his unpopular decision to join the 2003 invasion to topple Saddam, arrived in Iraq via Kuwait, following talks in Washington with President Bush on Thursday.

Blair told a Rose Garden news conference that Britain's next leader, current Treasury chief Gordon Brown, would continue to back al-Maliki's government, saying Iraq was a critical battleground in the fight against global terrorism.

"The forces that we are fighting in Iraq — al-Qaida on the one hand, Iranian-backed elements on the other — are the same forces we're fighting everywhere," Blair told reporters.

Britain has almost completed the process of pulling about 1,600 troops out of Iraq, leaving a force of around 5,500 based mainly on the fringes of the southern city of Basra.

Troops levels are likely to fall below 5,000 in late summer, but Blair has said British soldiers will stay in the Basra region until at least 2008 to train local forces, patrol the Iran-Iraq border and secure supply routes.

Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne, will not carry out a planned tour of duty in southern Iraq with his regiment after army chiefs ruled there were specific threats to the young royal's life.

In an emotional resignation speech to members of his Labor party last week, Blair acknowledged violence directed at civilians and coalition troops in Iraq has been "fierce and unrelenting and costly."

A mounting military death toll — 148 British troops have died in Iraq since the start of the 2003 invasion — has led some Britons to call for Brown to speed up the withdrawal of British soldiers and to cool relations with Bush.

Brown said last Sunday that Britain was "a divided country over Iraq," but claimed most citizens — even those opposed to the invasion — accepted that it is in their interests to support al-Maliki's administration.

[Mark Gobell]

Abominable. Blind. Subservient. Ex-President Carter lambasts Blair for support

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2560259.ece

By James Tapsfield, PA Political Correspondent
Published: 19 May 2007

The former US President Jimmy Carter lambasted Tony Blair for his "blind " support of the Iraq war today, saying it had been a "major tragedy for the world".

The outgoing Prime Minister's relationship with President George Bush appeared to have been "subservient" and "abominable", according to Mr Carter.

In an interview for BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Carter speculated that Mr Blair could have made a crucial difference to American political and public opinion by distancing himself during the build-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Mr Carter has long been an outspoken critic of the war, and has previously expressed his "disappointment" that Mr Blair did not use his influence more wisely.

His latest salvo came as Mr Blair arrived in Iraq for his final visit as prime minister, having held a valedictory press conference with Mr Bush in Washington where they heaped praise on each other.

Asked how he would describe Mr Blair's attitude to President Bush, Mr Carter replied: "Abominable. Loyal, blind, apparently subservient. I think that the almost undeviating support by Great Britain for the ill-advised policies of President Bush in Iraq have been a major tragedy for the world."

Mr Carter condemned the war as "unjustified", and said it had caused "deep schisms" around the globe.

He insisted that if Mr Blair had advised against going to war in 2003 it could have made a crucial difference.

"I can't say it would have made a definitive difference. But it would certainly have assuaged the problems that have arose lately," he said.

"One of the defences of the Bush administration, in America and worldwide - it's not been successful in my opinion - has been that, okay, we must be more correct in our actions than the world thinks because Great Britain is backing us.

"I think the combination of Bush and Blair giving their support to this tragedy in Iraq has strengthened the effort and has made opposition less effective and has prolonged the war and increased the tragedy that has resulted."