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Blair to push US to talk to Syria, Iran
British Prime Minister Tony Blair is to push the US administration next week to begin talks with Syria and Iran as a way of breaking the deadlock in Iraq and the Middle East, The Guardian said Saturday. Blair will give evidence via videolink next week to the bipartisan committee headed by the former US secretary of state James Baker, which is seen as the means through which President George W Bush could change course on Iraq.

The newspaper, citing unnamed British officials, said Blair will not call for the withdrawal of coalition troops, but is persuaded that Bush is open to a change of strategy in Iraq, which is gripped by spiralling violence. The same sources forecast that the Baker panel will call for an acceleration of the “Iraq-isation” of the police and army as well as advocate greater political co-operation within Iraq.
Posted by: Fred 2006-11-13
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=171812