5 October 2001
The Prime Minister Tony Blair briefed British journalists en route to London from New Dehli on the 6th of October 2001.
Question
What is India putting into the mix?
Prime Minister
Well, they have given a list of things that they are prepared to help America with, including logistical support, air space and so on. I can actually find you the details of that if you want. There is a list of things, but they are essentially to do with logistical support and air space.
Question
….. over the past few days, there is a growing sense of urgency in what you are saying, and obviously time is passing so we are getting closer to whenever it is going to be, but it does seem somewhat more stark, what you are saying, than it was even a couple of days ago.
Prime Minister
Well, I think there are three things that are happening. First of all, we have obviously been preparing since 11 September and those preparations for any military action are there, and that is clear. Secondly, the Taliban regime have had now three weeks when it has been made quite clear what they have to do if they want to avoid being treated as sheltering bin Laden, and the third thing is that all the various diplomatic and humanitarian pieces, as I said, are coming into place and you can see that. And there are the three aspects to that. There is the military preparations, there is the political and diplomatic coalition, which I think is very strong. I have been immensely impressed by the strength of it in three very different countries, in terms of their perspective of the world, and the third thing is the humanitarian coalition which is also, I think, strongly supported. The finance is there for it. We need to get the organisation in place, and so I think all those, if you like, pieces have come together, or just about.
Question
What do you think you have achieved on this trip. In what sense has the position changed since we left London on Thursday.
Prime Minister
I think the two things that have been achieved most clearly ? three actually. First of all that the coalition is strong and indeed the strength ….. and…. we can see that and obviously to impress upon each of the leaders of the countries concerned how important we think this is. But I haven’t needed to impress them with that. They have been very forthcoming with their support. I think the second thing is that the offers of support have now been repeated in a very firm way, and if you say when people see that action is going to be taken, that is the time when you might have been able to see any retreat from the positions
established straight after 11 September. Instead of retreat, there has been a strengthening, so I think that is important too. And the third thing that has happened is I think an acceptance that we are right to have given the Taliban an ultimatum. Right to have given them a chance to respond, but now that they haven’t responded there is an increasing sense of turning to ensure that any successor to the Taliban regime is broad-based and includes all the ethnic groupings. And this is really essential to the discussion I was able to have with all the three countries. If you take Russia, Pakistan and India, traditionally they
will have seen a lot of these issues in very different ways and yet I would say that on the need for action, on the need for the humanitarian effort to be part of it, and on the need also for us to assess the issue of what is the successor regime to the Taliban, there is actually an enormous amount of common ground. So I think from that perspective it has been very important.
Question
Following through from that, that not to take action now actually exposes some of those people, like Musharraf, who have come a long way and put themselves in quite a dangerous position behind the coalition.
Prime Minister
I think they would be very surprised if we didn’t back up what we have said. They have had several weeks to respond and there is no doubt, and interestingly I have found no doubt in any of the three countries that I was in, that the Taliban regime know where bin Laden is, that they are sheltering him, and what is more that there is an interconnection between the Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden and in the sense of the information that I got from those countries even stronger than I thought before I went.
Question
Could you say a bit more about this broad brush government that you would like to see in Afghanistan. Are you thinking of a coalition …..
Prime Minister
Well, there are a lot of discussions going on in the countries concerned that I have just visited, but also with our other allies about what the nature of that regime should be. Now without going into the detail of those discussions, there is an acceptance that it has got to be
broad-based and by that I think people understand that it has to include the Pushtun element as that is a very significant ethnic grouping in Afghanistan and I think there is also an acceptance too that we need, because of the instability there, to find some mechanism for stabilising the situation so that any successor regime can take root and develop and so that we can avoid what I think is a very strong feeling in the region that following the Russian departure from Afghanistan, the region was in a sense left to cope.
Question
Do you think the former King would be the sort of person who could fulfil that role.
Prime Minister
I don’t want to discuss that at the moment. You have seen a lot of the comments made in the region and around the region, but these are things that I think it is very important that this grows out of to a genuinely expressed wish of the Afghan people. Whether Afghan people inside Afghanistan, or those that are a part of the Diaspora caused by the Taliban.
Question
Is President Bush up for this nation rebuilding, this kind of more ambitious longer-term vision for Afghanistan.
Prime Minister
I think that that position flows necessarily from the action we take. Now our objectives are the objectives we set ourselves to close down bin Laden’s network of terrorist camps, and insofar as the Taliban regime are protecting and harbouring him, then to deal with them as well. Now, naturally, if that happens … then of course it is part of America’s view, and our view, and the view of the world community that we have then to not leave a vacuum, but sort that situation out once it has been created.
Question
But the thing that springs to mind, and the comments you were making about any possible successor regime to the Taliban to me anyway is some sort of UN Protectorate, but then some mechanism to get a government that has broad-based support and reflects all of the people involved in that country. You cannot impose a regime over there, so you need to think of something to stabilise the situation pro tem and then you need to get a broad-based government that has the genuine support of all the people in that country.
Prime Minister
Well, in broad terms it must be right that you try and achieve broad-based support, stability for the regime, but I think the mechanism for doing that is something that needs to be discussed with key people before it is announced.
Question
Do you accept that public opinion may begin to drift the longer that military action is delayed. There have been signs of that in America and also in Britain. Is that a worry?
Prime Minister
Public opinion was heartened I think by the fact that America did not act precipitately but has wanted to consider, to take stock and make preparations for proper action that is targeted and proportionate and that deals with the issue, and deals with the problem, rather than simply creating an effect. I also think there is an understanding, and I would really emphasise this to you, of why this is in our own national interest to act and it is in our own national interest to act because it
is clear that these terrorists would strike again if they are not restrained and their network dismantled. Though their immediate target has been America, we know perfectly well that these so-called fundamentalist groups are capable of operating in Europe and in different parts of the world, and indeed in countries like Russia.
Secondly, we can see from the economic fall-out from 11 September how important it is to restore confidence in the world confidence in the world economy, and one part of that confidence is making sure that the world is not subject to such gross and outrageous acts of mass terrorism and thirdly I think that there is a growing recognition, and you can see this in the region of the world where we have just been, that these people can export not just terrorism to different parts of the world, but instability as well. And that instability then becomes something that corrodes the countries in which that terrorism is operating. So there are very, very important reasons, quite apart from the sake of Britain and Afghanistan is the issue of the drugs trade. There are very
strong and important reasons for taking this action. Now for a long time there was, if you like, an insufficient world consensus about taking such action, but there is now.
Question
Should the public be prepared for British casualties?
Prime Minister
In respect of any military action, as I have said before, it is pointless to say that we can undertake military action without any risks being run, but obviously we will do everything we can to minimise the risk to our servicemen and women.
Question
The Taliban are still very strong around Kandahar and in Kabul, how confident are you that they are likely to fall, and what do you think it would take to bring that about.
Prime Minister
The concept, as I outlined to you before, is having a sort of trap around the Taliban regime where we are cutting off their finances, where we are targeting their military apparatus, where we are supporting those elements that are moving against them, and where we are totally isolating them from any support in the region, and that is obviously of course one of the reasons why it was so important to come to Pakistan to talk to General Musharraf.
Question
You talk repeatedly about wanting to bring UBL to justice. Can you expand on what that phrase actually means? Does that mean you would like to see him taken to the US, before a US Court, or does it mean, as George Bush has said, you don’t necessarily need to see that. Justice could easily ….. dead or alive.
Prime Minister
I have got nothing again to add to what President Bush has said and I have said about this earlier. And the reason why we wanted the Taliban regime to yield him up was precisely so that he does face justice, and the method of that has to be discussed.
Question
On Kashmir, Prime Minister, in India you got a sense that a lot of people there were unhappy about the way that there is an international coalition to fight terrorism in Afghanistan, yet Pakistan, which they see as a sponsor of terrorism, rather than being told off by yourself, is actually giving warm words from a British Prime Minister. Do you think there is a case for being tougher on Musharraf, on his role of promoting terrorism.
Prime Minister
We made it very clear. I specifically signalled out Srinigar and the attack on the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly in my statement in the House of Commons on Thursday. And I repeated that again today. We have made the strongest condemnation. Pakistan itself, President Musharraf, has condemned it too. But it is clear that our support for Pakistan at this moment in time does not in any way mean that we have changed our position on acts of terrorism in Kashmir or elsewhere.
Question
If the Taliban regime doesn’t hand over bin Laden and there is military action, can you tell us whether we are now ready for that. Is the military preparation complete or is it….Could we act at any time.
Prime Minister
I don’t think I should discuss that.
Question
If the Taliban regime moves, have we reached the midnight hour. Can they still escape military retaliation.
Prime Minister
Well, they have had three weeks to do it. It is hardly as if the message has been mixed or unclear.
Question
Is that a yes?
Prime Minister
Answer inaudible.
Question
… simply a lack of intelligence about where he is? Is that the only thing which is preventing from taking military action.
Prime Minister
I think what has been important all the way through is, we have explained to people that it is a long haul, that it isn’t an easy process. But what has been important is to put those elements together. The military, the diplomatic, the humanitarian. And those three things are now coming into place.
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