Blair urges Britain to stand fast in war on terrorism

Prime Minister Tony Blair urged Britons on Tuesday to stiffen their resolve as a new opinion poll indicated a drop in public support for the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan.

In a speech to the Welsh Assembly, Blair asked the country not to forget the hijacked planes crashing into the World Trade Center on Sept. 11. The military campaign has entered its fourth week amid reports of mounting civilian casualties from the bombing.

He said Western governments had “a flood” of evidence against Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network and its Taliban sponsors, whom he called the “sworn enemies of everything the civilized world stands for.” He said they will kill again if they are not stopped.

“They have one hope ... that we lack the moral fiber or will or courage to take them on, that we might begin but we won’t finish,” Blair said. “They are wrong because we will not falter. We will not stop until our mission is complete.”

Blair issued the appeal before leaving on another Mideast diplomatic tour that began in Damascus, Syria, and was expected to include stops in Saudi Arabia and Israel. His foreign travel schedule has been kept secret for security reasons since he took the lead in supporting the U.S. war on terrorism.

He is expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to prod them toward a peace settlement. Blair believes that progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is essential to maintaining Arab and Muslim support for the war in Afghanistan.

Also on Tuesday, the British government formally charged an Egyptian exile with conspiring to murder the military leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, Ahmed Shah Massood, two days before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Yasser Serri, 38, whose Islamic Observation Center serves as propaganda arm of Islamic fundamentalist groups, was also accused of soliciting support for a banned Egyptian extremist organization, al Gamaa al-Islamiyya, fund-raising for a terrorist group, and publishing material intended to incite racial hatred.

Serri’s Islamic Observation Center is alleged to have provided letters of accreditation to two suicide bombers who posed as journalists to get access to Massood in order to kill him.

Gareth Pierce, Serri’s attorney, called the charges “utter rubbish ... imaginary in the mind of the police.”

She said that a letter of introduction Serri apparently had once written and addressed “To Whom It May Concern” had been “cannibalized, added to and forged.”

Serri, in exile in Britain since 1984, has been sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt for an assassination attempt on the prime minister. The Egyptian government has been pressing Britain for his arrest and extradition for years.

In his speech, Blair reiterated Britain’s objectives in the Afghan war: to close down the al-Qaida network, to bring bin Laden and his associates to justice and to remove the Taliban regime for supporting him.

Unlike bin Laden, he said, the alliance does “all we can to minimize civilian casualties.” But he acknowledged there were some.

Civilian casualties are believed to be partly responsible for the changing mood of the British public.

While nearly two-thirds still approve of the military action by the United States and Britain, support has fallen 12 percentage points from 74 percent three weeks ago to 62 percent now, according to an ICM poll for The Guardian newspaper.

Anti-war sentiment is not growing as quickly. Only 20 percent of the 1,000 adults interviewed by telephone disapproved of the war. But more than half, 54 percent, believe there should be a pause in the bombing to allow aid convoys to go into Afghanistan, a move most military analysts reject.