Blair backs reformers and moderates in Middle East

In a wide-ranging speech in Dubai, the Prime Minister Tony Blair said: Too often discussions on the Middle East and Muslim opinion are conducted as if there are only two views – the extreme Islamist view and that of the West. In fact as the last seven days have shown, the vast bulk of opinion in the wider region is moderate and seeks peace. That goes for the people of the region as well as many governments. Our task is to mobilise that desire and harness it to ensure that all people here can have opportunities for safety, security, democracy, freedom and economic prosperity. Otherwise we allow the forces of extremism to win in the absence of a clear and constantly articulated alternative vision.

Full text of speech by the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Tony Blair in Dubai, United Arab Emirates: 19 December 2006

The histories of Britain and the UAE have been intertwined for the last 200 years. Over that time, no country has had a deeper involvement here. A unique relationship, of which we in the UK are intensely proud.

A partnership which has left us with a deep well of shared experience, respect and friendship. We each know how the other thinks, reacts, builds, dreams. We trust each other. I understand that London is often referred to here as the 8th Emirate. 427,000 visits from the UAE to the UK last year. News almost every day of a new Emirati acquisition in the UK.

While here, the UK is privileged to have over 120,000 residents and over 1m British tourists. Over 100,000 of you here in Dubai alone. And over a million British visitors this year. Dubai now the favourite long-haul destination for British travellers after New York. And the widespread use of the English language a priceless asset.

Add to that a flourishing business relationship. UAE is the UK's 9th largest export market. We export more here than to China. Over the last 5 years, the UK's trade figures have risen by 6; and they doubled again last year. Investment relationship equally important. Strongly welcome Emirati investment into the UK eg Dubai Ports World takeover of P&O. British companies for their part heavily involved in Dubai's big projects eg HSBC, Standard Chartered, Lloyds TSB and Barclays have all committed to the Dubai International Finance Centre.

We therefore decided a few months ago to make the UAE one of the British Government's top ten priority business partners over the next 5 years. Standing here and looking around me, I am reinforced in thinking how right that decision is already proving.

We need to build for the future across all fields: political, security and defence, commercial, educational, cultural, health - on which I am delighted to hear of the important and ground-breaking work by Imperial College London at their Diabetes Institute which opened in Abu Dhabi this summer. At the cutting edge of technology, which is exactly where our two countries should be together.
So I have agreed in my talks with Their Highnesses the President, the Prime Minister and the Crown Prince that we shall be establishing

- regular talks at senior official level on the regional security challenges facing our two countries;

- regular exchange between our senior business leaders on how best both to maximise our commercial enterprise and to work together on the common challenges that face us in making best use of our human capital, above all through education and training; and through the most up-to-date methods of healthcare;

- greater educational and training exchange. Yesterday I was present at the signature of an agreement between the London School of Economics and the Emirates Foundation on the establishment of the Shaikh Zayed Chair in (Regional Studies) at the LSE's new (Middle East Centre), alongside a programme of educational exchange and training in both countries.
But the UAE is also an interesting and telling place in which to conclude my visit to this region.

Too often discussions on the Middle East and Muslim opinion are conducted as if there are only two views – the extreme Islamist view and that of the West. In fact as the last seven days have shown, the vast bulk of opinion in the wider region is moderate and seeks peace. That goes for the people of the region as well as many governments. Our task is to mobilise that desire and harness it to ensure that all people here can have opportunities for safety, security, democracy, freedom and economic prosperity. Otherwise we allow the forces of extremism to win in the absence of a clear and constantly articulated alternative vision.
At first flush, it may seem odd to see a journey that has so many different and distinctive stopping points as one journey with a common theme and sense of destination. What joins together in a single narrative the usual December Brussels Council of the EU and this extraordinary modern adventure called Dubai?

In Brussels, Europe agreed, after some wrangling, to continue with Turkey's accession to the EU. Of course the criteria for membership should be met, as for any applicant nation. But whereas with previous accessions, of smaller countries more closely identified with traditional notions of Europe, the objective criteria were occasionally stretched by subjective politics to allow membership; in Turkey's case the danger is the opposite: that even if the criteria are met, politics intervenes to deny membership. Be under no illusion: were that to happen, the Muslim world would conclude that the religious affiliation of Turkey was the reason, a conclusion with massive strategic implications for all of us.

Turkey itself has seen economic and political transformation occurring under Prime Minister Erdogan's leadership but given strength by the prospect of EU accession. Here is a Muslim nation showing how keen it is to take its place in the modern world, eschewing extremism, embracing democracy, actively seeking the international community's support in resolving the long-standing and bitter dispute over a divided Cyprus.

Like so many Arab nations, Egypt is striving to modernise but worried that in the process of opening up, malign and extreme elements abuse the good intentions of the modernisers.

In Iraq, literally and daily a life and death struggle is taking place between a government elected by the people, a multi-national force supporting them in that cause, and internal sectarian extremists, backed by external forces who want either a secular dictatorship or a sectarian theocracy to govern the country. Down in Basra, I met members of the British Armed Forces doing heroic service for their own nation and the wider global community. They had one message: the ordinary people of Basra wanted peace but there were extreme elements, backed from the outside, determined to thwart their will.

So, on Monday, to the most intractable dispute in the Middle East: Israel and Palestine. What do we find there? An Israeli Government that has now agreed to support the creation of a Palestinian state: a Palestinian President who wants to negotiate its creation alongside an open recognition of Israel. But because the Fateh Party appeared unable to make progress towards the two state solution and seemed out of touch, the people elected Hamas. They are now stranded between an elected President who wants to do the right thing but is blocked; and an elected Government which refuses to countenance the right of Israel to exist as a state and, where again, there are extremist elements utterly bent on denying any possibility of peace through the use of terror.

Yet we speak today in this modern miracle that is the UAE: a Muslim country that in a few decades has made itself into an oasis of economic enterprise, tourism and openness to the world. It is what Basra or Gaza could be, were their people not so savagely let down by the politics of their countries.

The journey is already pretty crowded. But we could have added Afghanistan, where Afghan people and coalition forces try to drive back Taliban extremists who recently executed a teacher in front of his class for teaching girls in his school. Or Sudan or Somalia. We could describe the voyage of modernisation currently undertaken by President Musharraf in Pakistan. In fact, were there time, we could discuss this issue in one form or another by reference to most major countries and regions in the world. In Britain, but also across the rest of Europe, a debate is happening about how we remain tolerant, treat equally all people whatever their race or religion, but protect that tolerance against extreme elements who seek to divide us on religious or ethnic grounds.

The lesson of all this I see as startlingly real, clear and menacing. There is a monumental struggle going on worldwide between those who believe in democracy and modernisation and the forces of reaction and extremism. It is the challenge of the early 21st century. Yet a great part of our own opinion either think there is no common theme to it; or if it thinks there is, is inclined to believe it's "our" – that is America and its allies – fault that it is so.

In any other situation in which terrorists, with almost incredible wickedness butcher completely innocent people, provoke sectarian conflict, spread chaos and despair, we would say: we should stand up and fight back. In Iraq, in Afghanistan, but seeping across the board, voices, instead, say: we shouldn't be involved; better leave well alone; it's none of our business.

Here are elements of the Government of Iran, openly supporting terrorism in Iraq to stop a fledgling democratic process; trying to turn out a democratic Government in Lebanon; flaunting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine – at the same time as denying the Holocaust and trying to acquire nuclear weapon capability: and yet a large part of world opinion is frankly almost indifferent. It would be bizarre if it weren't deadly serious.

We have to wake up. These forces of extremism – based on a warped and wrong-headed misinterpretation of Islam – aren't fighting a conventional war. But they are fighting one. Against us; "us" being not just the West, still less simply America and its allies but "us" as all those who believe in tolerance, respect for others and liberty. We must mobilise our alliance of moderation in this region and outside of it to defeat the extremists. Nothing matters more. Nothing should stand in the way of it. Nothing should be more galvanising of our will.

That is why Europe must not turn its back on Turkey. We need Turkey to succeed. We need its influence, not least in this region, for the good. The fact it is a Muslim nation is an advantage not a risk.

We need to support moderate Israeli and Palestinian people in their search for peace. There are three immediate priorities: an Office of the President in Palestine that is given the means to improve its capacity and effectiveness to act in the interests of the Palestinian people; an early meeting between Prime Minister Olmert and President Abbas to make early progress on outstanding preliminary issues; and as soon as is possible, a re-launch of the political process leading to a two state solution. These priorities are deliverable. But they have to be delivered.

We must ensure that everything conceivable is done to help the Afghan and Iraqi Governments achieve stability. "Cutting and running" – to use that familiar phrase – would not just be a breach of faith. It would be disastrous for our own wider interests.

We must support and empower moderate and modernising governments and people everywhere in this region. We must recognise the strategic challenge the Government of Iran poses; not its people, not possibly all of its ruling elements, but those presently in charge of its policy. They seek to pin us back in Lebanon, in Iraq, in Palestine. Our response should be to expose what they're doing; build the alliances to prevent it; and pin them back across the whole of this region.

To do all of this, we need the open and clear backing of the countries in this region who know better than me what is happening and why.

In order words, at every stage, and in every aspect of this struggle, we should be acting decisively in favour of those who share our values. We should stop buying into this wretched culture of blaming ourselves, of pandering to a wholly imagined grievance on the part of those we're fighting. We should take on the nonsense that says that when terrorists who claim to be Muslim kill innocent and true Muslims in Iraq or Afghanistan it's somehow the fault of American and British soldiers being present there. We should proclaim what is so obviously correct: that what holds back the Palestinian people are not those of us striving to make a reality of a viable Palestinian state next door to Israel; but those who pretend to champion that cause but deny the very two state solution that is Palestine's only hope of salvation.

The suffering of so many people in this region is indeed tragic. Yet here in the UAE, we see the enormous potential for prosperity and progress. If "our" policy has a fault, it is that we are too shy of acting bolding to bring about change, to give succour to those trying to live for the better.

Out of this region with its complex, fascinating history has come this challenge. Within this region, will come the solution. But everywhere the impact of its future – for good or ill – will be felt. It is not too late. But it is urgent.