LONDON
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said the U.K. should not rule out using troops to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
In a 6,500-word essay published on his Tony Blair faith foundation website on Monday, Blair laid out seven points which he claimed would counter "religious extremism".
The controversial Middle East peace envoy wrote: "We have to fight groups like ISIS. In the end you're also going to have to have force capability on the ground."
"Now I'm not saying we in the West need to do this, it would be better if it were done by those people closer to the ground who have got the most immediate and direct reason for fighting them. But I don't think we can, in all circumstances, rule it out and, after all, we do have the force capability to do this."
Blair later told the BBC in an interview: "There can be an abundance of diplomacy, all necessary relief of humanitarian suffering, every conceivable statement of condemnation which we can muster, but unless they're accompanied by physical combat, we will mitigate the problem but not overcome it."
Blair argued that a strong force was required to defeat extremism, saying: "It may even require a new configuration of combat forces (within NATO or European) altogether. But I repeat: you cannot uproot this extremism unless you go to where it originates and fight it."
- Sisi 'must succeed'
In the essay, Blair painted a picture of what he perceived was a global threat from "religious extremism".
He advocated support for President Sisi of Egypt, including for the July 2013 military coup and the removal of democratically elected President Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood.
"This is why what has happened in Egypt is so important and what will happen in the future is vital; including to our own interests," Blair wrote.
He said the West should "advance broad strategic interests in defence" of Western values, adding: "It is massively to our advantage that President Sisi succeeds. We should help him."
"We should not make the mistake of dealing with the Muslim Brotherhood as if it were merely an Arab version of the Christian Democrats. It isn't, and there is little sign it ever will be."
In the essay, he advocated that the West and East work together and encouraged people not to generalize when discussing issues relating to Muslims.
- Violent insurgency
The United States and France have launched airstrikes against ISIL targets.
Blair is mainly known for his support for the US-led war on Iraq in 2003, when he claimed that Iraq had the capability to strike U.K. forces in Cyprus within 45 minutes and that then President Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, none of which were later proven to be true.
He was accused of misleading the UK parliament in the run-up to the war, and his comments on Iraq and the Middle East have repeatedly drawn widespread criticism, with some critics questioning his mental health and others accusing him of seeking to "wash his hands of responsibility" for the 2003 war and the ensuing turmoil in the region.
In June, he sparked anger after claiming the 2003 invasion of Iraq was not to blame for the violent insurgency wracking the country.
Clare Short, a former Labour minister who resigned over the Iraq War, told Sky News: "He has become a complete American neo-con, who thinks military action, bombing, attacking will solve the problems and it's actually making more and more tension, anger, division and bitterness in the Middle East."
She said he was "absolutely, consistently wrong, wrong, wrong".
- Mass protests
Former British ambassador to the US, Sir Christopher Meyer, has previously said the handling of the Iraq campaign was "perhaps the most significant reason" for the current sectarian violence.
Between one and three million people in Britain, according to organizers' and police estimates, protested on the streets of London on 15 February, 2003, in the run up to the Iraq war in what is believed to have been the biggest protest march in UK history.
The BBC reported that between six and 10 million people took part in protests in up to 60 countries over the 15th and 16th.
ISIL continues to control large swathes of land in Syria and Iraq.
The group has posted several execution videos of hostages, among whom were two American journalists and a British aid worker.
www.aa.com.tr/en
