US: Tony Blair is to urge the US administration next week to open talks with its great adversaries Syria and Iran, as a way to break the impasse in Iraq and the wider Middle East.
He is due to give video-link evidence to the independent bipartisan panel in Washington headed by James Baker, seen as the vehicle whereby George Bush can change course on Iraq. The evidence, on Tuesday, is regarded as a vital opportunity for the prime minister to influence thinking in Washington at a rare time of flux.
Mr Blair will not call for rapid withdrawal of coalition troops, but believes that Mr Bush is genuinely open to a change of strategy and tone following the US president's reverses in the midterm elections, a UK government official said.
British officials are not expecting the Baker panel to propose a U-turn when it reports in a few months, but forecast it will call for measures to speed up the "Iraqi-isation" of the police and army. It will also propose greater political co-operation within Iraq.
Mr Blair will also press the panel to recommend that progress in Iraq depends on making a re-energised push for peace in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the official said. British officials also believe that the panel, and the Bush administration, are open to the principle of dialogue with Syria, but Britain is hoping that the panel will be explicit in stating what the content of such talks should be.
Number 10 confirmed Mr Blair would give evidence next week, but said it would not brief on the discussions until afterward. British diplomatic sources have been told by Basher Assad, the Syrian president, that he wants to be a constructive player in the Middle East. Mr Blair's senior foreign policy adviser, Nigel Sheinwald, travelled to Damascus three weeks ago. It is thought the US administration supported his visit, and Downing Street awaits a fuller response from Syria.
Both Iran and Syria have an interest in preventing civil war in Iraq, since they oppose its break-up and do not want to see permanent sectarian warfare that might spread. Speaking separately to a British diplomat and a British business mission in recent weeks, Mr Assad affirmed that he wanted "to come in from the cold". But both sources formed a clear impression that, while this was what he would like to do, his freedom of action was limited by factions inside his government.
Mr Blair faces an uphill battle to persuade Mr Bush to include a big initiative on Palestine in any revised Iraq strategy. The resurgent Democrats are as supportive of Israel as the Republicans, and there is little support in Israel for talks with Syria, seen as Hamas's puppet masters. Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert is due in Washington next week. He rejected offers by Mr Assad after Israel's invasion of Lebanon to relaunch long-suspended peace talks, saying Syria must first stop sponsoring Palestinian militants and Hizbullah.
Meanwhile, a purported audio recording by the leader of Iraq's al-Qaeda wing has gloated over the resignation of Donald Rumsfeld. Abu Hamza al-Muhajir, also known as Abu Ayyub al-Masri, said in the recording posted on the internet yesterday that the group had 12,000 armed fighters and 10,000 others waiting to be equipped to fight US troops in Iraq. "I tell the lame duck [ US administration] do not rush to escape as did your defence minister ... stay on the battle ground." He said his group would not rest until it had blown up the White House.