| The warmonger who wanted to be a dove By Hassan Hanizadeh The Middle East Quartet has made a mistake in selecting Tony Blair as its Middle East envoy. The Quartet, comprised of the United Nations, the United States, the European Union, and Russia, was initially established to formulate a solution for the Palestine issue. Tony Blair has become a modern Don Quixote, except he tilts at the peace process rather than windmills. Blair's illogical behavior in Iraq and Afghanistan and his subservience to US President George W. Bush tainted his legacy as prime minister. Britain has seen dozens of prime ministers, and each of them tried to elevate the status of Britain in the strategically important Middle East region, and Britain's special focus on the Middle East and West Asia created a special relationship between Islamic nations and Britain. Thus, over the last 100 years, every change in a regional Islamic country has had an effect on Britain's domestic and foreign policy. Yet, the fierce competition between the UK and the United States for control of the region's natural resources caused Blair to adopt an independent foreign policy. However, after 9/11, the former British prime minister put all Britain's eggs in the US basket, which effectively undermined Downing Street's foreign policy. The decisions to dispatch British forces to Afghanistan and Iraq were Blair's major mistakes, which tied Britain's fate to the US However, after World War II, London made efforts to distance ... |
