Prime Minister grilled, Paxman style, by Arab TV

War against terrorism: Interview

Tony Blair unexpectedly faced the Jeremy Paxman treatment in an interview with an Arab television channel screened on Tuesday.

The broadcast, planned by Downing Street as a means of communicating directly with the Arab world, turned into a painful grilling for the Prime Minister.

Mr Blair invited Sami Haddad of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel, to Downing Street on Monday to explain directly to millions of Muslims the reasons for the strikes on Afghanistan. He faced a string of awkward questions about the Government's policies in the Middle East. His ordeal contrasted with the Qatari station's treatment of Osama bin Laden, who was given an open microphone to denounce George Bush as an "infidel".

Mr Haddad said: "You always talk about weapons of mass destruction as if Iraq is the only country which has had weapons of mass destruction. What about Israel? They have weapons of mass destruction. You don't talk about that."

Mr Blair was accused of being "hawkish" towards Arab states compared to other European countries.

His policy of dropping aid from planes on Afghanistan was criticised as "a way to kill the father and feed the son".

He was virtually accused of imperialism in claiming that Mr bin Laden's fundamentalist "version" of Islam was "a million miles away from the reality". The interviewer said: "Isn't it the task of the Muslim world to see to that, not the Western Christian world?"

The interview was part of Britain's policy of "winning hearts and minds" to correct the fault lines in the coalition in the Arab world.

Mr Blair made it clear that the military strikes were not directed at Afghans or the Arab world. "This is not about the West versus Islam," he said.

But Mr Blair's unifying message did not go unchallenged. He was accused of "jumping on a bandwagon", and "assuming ... the role of Mrs Thatcher during 1991, when Iraq invaded Kuwait". He was accused of nurturing people like Mr bin Laden as "freedom fighters" to topple regimes in the Arab world, and then condemning them as terrorists when they became dangerous.

And he was condemned for abandoning the mujahedin in Afghanistan when the Russians left in 1989, and leaving a "million children to die" in Iraq.

"Hizbollah, Hamas, Jihad Islami – they are considered freedom fighters. They are a kind of resistance, as the British were helping the French Resistance against the Nazi occupation," the interviewer said, clearly playing up to his Arab audience.

"Well some people may consider them to be freedom fighters," Mr Blair haltingly replied.

"Blowing up innocent civilians" was an act that must be condemned regardless of the cause, the Prime Minister said.