Tony Blair: 'West should focus on radical Islam'

Tony Blair will warn Western leaders they must put aside their differences with Russia over Ukraine to focus on the threat of Islamic extremism. In a speech later, the former UK prime minister - now a Middle East envoy - will say powerful nations must "take sides" and back "openminded" groups !head of the speech, Mr "lair also warned the #est would pay a "very heavy price" for not intervening in $yria %e said the opportunity to create "an optimistic solution" had been missed Mr "lair&s speech at "loomberg in 'ondon comes amid high tensions between (ussia and the #est over Ukraine #estern leaders accuse (ussia of using undercover military personnel to back separatists in eastern Ukraine - a claim (ussia denies

' uriously reluctant'

)he former *M - now envoy for the +uartet of the U,, EU, U$ and (ussia - will say that #estern leaders must "elevate the issue of religious e-tremism to the top of the agenda" !nd they must co-operate with other countries - "in particular, (ussia and .hina" - regardless of "other differences" %e will say the threat posed by a radical view which "distorts and warps Islam&s true message" is "spreading across the world" "It is destabilising communities and even nations It is undermining the possibility of peaceful co-e-istence in an era of globalisation "!nd in the face of this threat we seem curiously reluctant to acknowledge it and powerless to counter it effectively " %e will call on leaders to consider the "absurdity" of spending billions of dollars on security against an ideology which is being "advocated" in the schools and institutions of "countries with whom we have intimate security and defence relationships" "$ome of those countries of course wish to escape from the grip of this ideology, but often it is hard for them to do so within their own political constraints," he will add ")his struggle between what we may call the open-minded and the closed-minded is at the heart of whether the /0st .entury turns in the

direction of peaceful co-e-istence or conflict between people of different cultures "

!o"fly #ones
$peaking to the "". ahead of the speech he said the #est had a "responsibility but also an interest" in making sure that "huge struggle" was "resolved in the right way" "%owever much people may think we can 1ust push it to one side and forget about it, I think that would be a mistake "!bove all, we have to commit #e have to engage " 2n the issue of $yria, Mr "lair said he understood the UK&s reluctance not to take military action, but he would have pushed for the imposition of no-fly 3ones had he still been in office two years ago "I know what the difficult conse+uences are of intervention, but if you look at $yria you see the conse+uences of non-intervention, and nonintervention there is something for which we will pay a very heavy price "