Blair urges to unite East and West

The Middle East and the West must learn to coexist, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Monday afternoon

‘The time of Western supremacy is over, and we must work in solidarity or fail,’ Blair said.

Blair addressed issues of American supremacy, globalization, the Middle Eastern conflict and the importance of international solidarity to a crowd of 5,000 at Tufts University Monday afternoon.’

Blair gave the Issam M. Fares Lecture, an annual lecture intended to promote Middle Eastern studies, sponsored by Tufts’ Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies. In the past, the lecture has drawn public figures like former Presidents George HW Bush and Bill Clinton, former British PM Margaret Thatcher and Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Tufts University President Lawrence S. Bacow said.

‘This distinguished series brings to Tufts the most important figures in contemporary public affairs,’ Bacow said. ‘Mr. Blair offers unique insights into the critical challenges of our era.’

After braving London’s worst snowstorm in recent history before traveling overseas, Blair began his lecture by poking fun at the Boston winter mentality.

‘The snow is worse here,’ he said. ‘But you all seem to be functioning perfectly.’

Blair moved into a more serious discussion when he said globalization was one of the biggest challenges facing Western and Eastern relations. However, he said one defining characteristic of the world is interdependence.

The recent conflict between Gaza and Israel is the most imperative issue in the Middle East today, Blair said.

‘Resolving this conflict is the single most important idea in the Middle East,’ he said. ‘Nothing should stand in the way of achieving it.’

A potential peace agreement between Israel and Palestine would be the ‘single most powerful expression of coexistence,’ Blair said.

Three major points of Blair’s proposed solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would include reinvigorating political negotiations to create a two-party state, granting autonomy to the West Bank to spur building of political systems and providing an approach to Gaza to unite Palestine.

‘Our destiny is to succeed or fail together,’ he said. ‘Not fall into the abyss of agony, dissonance and despair.’

Tufts University students, who applied to a lottery to win tickets to the event, pressed Blair on his political actions as Prime Minister, specifically those during which he served as one of former President George W. Bush’s closest political allies.

Tufts graduate student Sam Wallis questioned Blair’s motives throughout the Iraq war.

‘Now that the Downing Street Memo has been leaked to the press, and now that you are out of office, do you still think that we have cause to invade Iraq?’ Wallis said.

Blair said no intelligence was intentionally misleading and that because of this, he still stands by his decision to invade Iraq.

‘I still feel that the region is not less safe than it was when Saddam was running Iraq,’ he said.

When asked of his regrets during a question and answer session, Blair smiled.

‘That’s for me to know and for you all to try to find out.’