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Uncorrected Transcript of Oral Evidence, to be published as HC 709-i, House of Commons, Minutes of Evidence taken before the Liaison Committee.
This is an uncorrected transcript of evidence taken in public and reported to the House. Any public use of, or reference to, the contents should make clear that neither witnesses nor Members have had the opportunity to correct the record. The transcript is not yet an approved formal record of these proceedings.
Q164 Andrew Miller: Relations with Iran are increasingly strained. They have been linked with lethal attacks on our forces serving in Iraq. You have, quite rightly, been very firm about the language they have used about Israel. Have we still got a working relationship with the Iranians?
Mr Blair: At some levels, I think is the only way to answer that. In terms of the discussions we continue to have with other European partners and Iran on their nuclear obligations, yes, to an extent. Things have definitely got more difficult since the election of the new president, one would have to be honest about that.
Q165 Andrew Miller: On the nuclear side, of course, they are playing one nation off against another in an attempt to keep things outside of the Security Council. Is there a real risk that their actions could irreparably damage the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty?
Mr Blair: Yes, I think there is a real risk. If Iran was to develop nuclear weapons capability then I think it would pose a very serious threat to world stability and peace, I do not think there is any doubt about that at all. That is why the remarks of the President of Iran about Israel recently do not exactly auger well for the type of policy that they are pursuing, therefore it is not surprising if people are very concerned about the possibility they get such capability.
Q166 Andrew Miller: Absolutely, but just on their own borders the Americans are clearly getting rather twitchy about Iranian incursions into what are perceived as Iraqi waters under international law. They are clearly tempting retaliation from either Iraqi or American forces. Can we be assured that Britain would not get drawn into such potential conflict?
Mr Blair: I do not think we have any intention of letting it get to that stage. Look, the position we have with Iran is this. There are three issues that worry people: there is their nuclear weapons capability and their refusal to co-operate properly with the Atomic Energy Authority; there is their support of terrorism around the Middle East and there is their meddling in Iraq. On each of those three issues we have real genuine cause for concern. No-one is talking military action or any of the rest of it, and Iran is quite a different country from Iraq in many, many ways. It may well be that the change in Iran comes from within, ultimately, but it is a concern and a worry for us because they are a powerful country with a large part of the world's energy resources at their disposal.
Q167 Andrew Miller: Indeed, and one of the most important border issues is the protection of the Iraqi oil supplies into the Persian Gulf within a mile of the Iranian border. Some of that infrastructure is extremely old. It has survived, amazingly, some of the conflicts, I have to say, but it is extremely old and it is in extremely vulnerable positions. What are we doing to seek to strengthen that supply route?
Mr Blair: We are working on this with the Iraqi Government to try to make sure we upgrade the infrastructure and the facilities. The problem you have got is that all of the infrastructure work you want to do at the moment in Iraqi is hobbled by the security situation, and we have to change that. You are right, long-term what is sensible in the Middle East is that you end up with the spread of democracy, the spread of human rights and countries co-operating together and becoming stable partners for the outside world. If you get that, you will change an awful lot of the security and other problems that we have in the world today. Maybe I am wrong in this but I think a lot of the problems we have with extremism really come out of the Middle East.
Source: Liaison Committee website, http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/liaison_committee.cfm
© 2005 The Acronym Institute.