UK's Blair Says Appeasing Iran Could Be Historic Mistake

Dow Jones Newswires:

Ignoring Iran's threats to destroy Israel, especially when it appears to be intent on developing nuclear weapons, could prove to be a historic mistake, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair was quoted as saying in an interview published Monday.

The interview was published hours before Blair set off from Israel to meet in Beirut with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

Blair, in an interview with the Israeli daily Haaretz newspaper, drew a comparison to the Western appeasement policy that failed to rein in Adolf Hitler in the 1930s.

"When you have the president of a country as powerful as Iran say those things, it may be very foolish of us to assume he doesn't mean them. And when he's also trying to acquire a nuclear weapon, then I think the warning signs are pretty clear," Blair said. "If we don't get worried about that, future historians will raise a few questions about us and about our judgment." READ MORE

Blair has backed the U.S. position for a quick move to slap U.N. sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment, a process used in developing nuclear weapons. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful.