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Blair Vows Military Action Against Afghanistan as Tour Ends
NEW DELHI, Oct 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair is returning to the U.K. from India after the final leg of his international tour to shore up support for the global campaign against the war on terrorism, under the umbrella of a U.S.-led coalition that will most likely involve strikes against Afghanistan's ruling Taliban.
Blair said that action to isolate the Taliban would continue until the perpetrators of the attacks on the United States had been brought to justice, BBC's online news service reported.
But he added that any military action would make "full allowance for the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan," reported the BBC.
Blair arrived in India from Pakistan, where he offered an aid package and military cooperation in exchange for crucial support.
In Islamabad, Blair listed a litany of economic bail-out packages, praising Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's "courage and leadership" in opting to stand with the international coalition against terrorism despite stiff domestic opposition from powerful religious parties.
He warned the Taliban that if they failed to hand over the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, whom Washington accuses of being the alleged mastermind behind the September 11th U.S. attacks, they would also become a legitimate military target.
The Taliban, along with much of the international community, has called on the U.S. to release the "concrete evidence" they have linking bin Laden to the attacks. The militia said they would turn bin Laden over to an international court if they received evidence linking him to the attack. But the U.S. has refused to negotiate with the Taliban, or provide them with the evidence.
The BBC's political editor, Andrew Marr, said Blair's tone when discussing possible military action had hardened in recent days.
Ending a whirlwind two-day tour that also took him to Russia and Pakistan, Blair said the Taliban regime, believed to be sheltering bin Laden, "has clearly failed," Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.
Echoing remarks he made Friday in Pakistan, Blair said he believed there was "the need for Afghanistan to have a stable government with a broad base of ethnic groups."
"It is important to realize the focus is on dealing with Afghanistan and closing down bin Laden's camps. I hope very much to ensure there is stability in the region, but it must be based on the rule of law," Blair said.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who has said New Delhi would cooperate fully with the U.S.-led "war on terrorism", meanwhile took a veiled swipe at the international community for its embrace of India's archrival Pakistan in the fight against terrorism.
"Even while extending our whole-hearted support to the pursuit of the guilty terrorists of September 11th, we should not let countries pursue their own terrorist agenda under cover of this action," Vajpayee alleged.
"I am not in favor of taking this global action in isolation. We are fighting a global war and there has to be a global solution," he added.
He linked the attacks on the United States with the hijacking in 1999 of an Indian Airlines plane from Nepal to Afghanistan.
"The hijack of an aircraft from Kathmandu to Kandahar may have linkage with four other aircraft wreaking havoc in the U.S. nearly two years later. This is precisely why terrorism has to be dealt with globally."
Blair said the international coalition must strongly deal with terrorism in all its forms.
The British prime minister's trip to India was announced at the last minute after he paid visits to Russia and Pakistan on a tour called in the wake of the attacks on New York and Washington that has left more than 6,000 dead or missing.
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