There’s a punchy interview with Jonathan Powell – Tony Blair’s former chief of staff, and a key figure in the Irish peace process – in today’s Guardian. He’s quite candid about the Blair years – suggesting, for instance, that New Labour didn’t govern boldly enough because it was too scared about losing power. But his words on dealing with al-Qaida are particularly controversial:
“There’s nothing to say to al-Qaida and they’ve got nothing to say to us at the moment, but at some stage you’re going to have to come to a political solution as well as a security solution. And that means you need the ability to talk … It’s very difficult for democratic governments to do – talk to a terrorist movement that’s killing your people … [But] if I was in government now I would want to have been talking to Hamas, I would be wanting to communicate with the Taliban; and I would want to find a channel to al-Qaida.
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