IHT : British, Pakistani leaders say terrorism can be defeated only by backing moderate policies

British, Pakistani leaders say terrorism can be defeated only by backing moderate policies

The Associated Press | November 18, 2006

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: British Prime Minister Tony Blair said military force alone can't defeat terrorism, acknowledging Sunday that solving the Mideast crisis was key to curbing violent extremism. Pakistan's pro-U.S. President Gen. Pervez Musharraf admitted local militants were aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Sunday's meeting between the two leaders, crucial players in the U.S.-led war on terror, led to the signing of security, aid and education packages aimed at promoting a moderate brand of Islam and preventing Pakistan becoming a haven for extremists bent on attacking Western interests.

Blair's visit comes amid increased Taliban violence in Afghanistan, where 36 British soldiers have died this year.

In Pakistan, pro-Taliban and al-Qaida militants have been waging bloody attacks on Pakistani soldiers in semiautonomous tribal regions bordering Afghanistan.

Britain and its allies are supplementing the U.S.-led military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq with increased help for reconstruction projects, and a new impetus to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Blair said.

"We begin to win when we start fighting properly, and I think we are now fighting properly — but we have got to do more," Blair told reporters in the eastern Pakistan city of Lahore, in an apparent acknowledgment that a previous military-only strategy would not win moderate Muslims' support.

"What we have to realize is that where there are people standing up for a different way forward, we have to back them," Blair said.

His comments followed an interview Friday with Al-Jazeera's English-language channel, in which he appeared to agree with broadcaster David Frost's claim that operations in Iraq had "been pretty much of a disaster."

His office said Blair had made a "straightforward slip of the tongue," and had only "half-listened" to Frost's question.

Securing Israeli-Palestinian peace would have a positive impact across the region, Blair said.

"This global extremism is an ideology that exploits grievances. So what we have to do is at the same time as we are taking on the ideology, we have to take away those elements of grievance," he said at the Punjab Governor's Residence in Lahore.

"This took a generation to grow, and it will take a generation to defeat," he said.

The threat from homegrown extremists — such as the four young Muslims who killed 52 commuters and themselves in bomb attacks on London's transport network in July 2005 — was a problem Britain shared with many nations.

"In the end, the security measures are in place, but they only take you so far. We have got to win hearts and minds," Blair told Pakistan's Geo TV.

Three of the four bombers had family ties to Pakistan and visited this country. Officials have warned of hundreds moving between Britain and Pakistan to train, plan and raise funds for terror plots.

Musharraf said tackling broader concerns over Mideast peace were key to fighting extremism.

"This knot of terrorism will be untied through first resolving the Palestinian dispute," said Musharraf, who switched his country's support from the Taliban to the U.S. war on terror following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Musharraf's government is trying to sever the broad-based support the Taliban receives in Pakistan's northwestern tribal areas, but the president acknowledged the had not achieved "100 percent success."

"The Taliban problem is an Afghan problem ... being supported by elements from this side," he said. "We need to put our house in order on our side."

Blair and Musharraf formally signed a pledge to double a 480 million pounds (US$910 million; €710 million) three-year aid package to fund moderate Islamic schools and other projects.

Some 20 million pounds (US$38 million, €30 million) would be released immediately, Blair said, for poverty alleviation work in Pakistan, a majority Muslim state of 160 million people where al-Qaida and Taliban militants have long found sanctuaries of support.

Blair later met Pakistan's prime minister and Muslim leaders at Islamabad's towering Faisal Mosque.

Musharraf said greater reconstruction aid was badly needed in southeastern Afghanistan to prevent the country falling into the Taliban's hands.

"I have indicated to the prime minister that I believe there is a requirement for a massive inflow of development funds there — some kind of Marshall Plan for billions of dollars to be put in," he said.

Blair's office said US$10.5 billion (€8.2 billion) in Afghan aid was pledged at a January London donor's conference, but the problem was getting the infrastructure in place to spend the money.

Britain will also provide two MI-17 helicopters by next April for anti-narcotics forces patrolling the Afghan-Pakistan border to help curb Afghanistan's massive opium trade, Blair said.