TONY Blair yesterday moved towards the hawkish United States position on Iran, jangling nerves among Labour MPs and peace campaigners fearful of fresh conflict in the Middle East. Appearing before a committee of senior MPs in London, the Prime Minister said there was "no doubt" that the Iranian government backed international terrorism and warned the regime in Tehran not to stand in the way of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians. Anti-war activists and some European diplomats fear that the US, following the re-election of George Bush as president, is gearing up for a confrontation with Iran over its embryonic nuclear programme. Reports earlier this year suggested US special forces had already been in Iran to identify possible targets for US or Israeli air strikes.Although Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, said last week in London that an attack on Iran was "not on the agenda", there is no doubt that Washington is increasingly focusing its attentions on the theocratic government in Tehran. Mr Bush last month pledged in his inauguration speech to spread the "fire of freedom" around the world, seen by many as a warning to the Iranian hard-liners to permit more political freedoms and end human-rights abuses. Last week, the US president said Iran was "the world's primary state sponsor of terror", an assessment Mr Blair enthusiastically supported yesterday. "It certainly does sponsor terrorism, there's no doubt about that at all," the Prime Minister said.
The US State Department says elements in the Iranian regime provide military and financial support to groups such as Hezbollah that carry out attacks against Israeli interests. Mr Blair suggested that support must end. He said: "I hope very much that if we can make progress in the Middle East, Iran realises it's got an obligation to help that, not hinder it." Raising Iran's profile in the context of international terrorism is a broadening of the case against Tehran. In recent years, European diplomacy has concentrated on persuading Iran to give up any attempt to create weapons-grade uranium.
As Mr Blair spoke, Iranian diplomats indicated their patience was running out with lengthy but so-far fruitless talks with Britain, France and Germany. Talks between the two sides resumed in Geneva yesterday and began with a warning from Hossein Mousavian, the senior Iranian negotiator. "If we see tangible, objective progress, we will continue negotiations," he said. "If we think the Europeans are killing time, we will definitely [change our position]." Mr Blair insisted that Iran's possible military ambitions must be dealt with: "I don't think it's disputed that there is an issue to do with Iran and nuclear weapons capability."
Meanwhile, Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights worker who won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize, became the latest campaigner to warn against any armed strike against the regime in Tehran. "For the human rights defenders in Iran, the possibility of a foreign military attack on their country represents an utter disaster for their cause," Ms Ebadi, the founder of the Centre for Defence of Human Rights in Tehran, wrote in the New York Times yesterday.