Discredited Blair seeks US-Middle East influence

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-up 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. Link

db: Lord Blair wants to influence US policy now the Bush policy to which he signed up with enthusiasm has been trashed. He will also ask for a "re-energised push for peace in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict" - is there anybody left who is still buying this nonsense - apart from Neo-Labour party careerists? The man is a fraud.