LONDON, July 26 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair acknowledged Tuesday the Iraq war was being used to recruit terrorists, but said it was no excuse for the London bombings.
During an 85 minute press conference, Blair said he could see "how people use these issues to recruit people," but insisted the roots of extremism went a lot deeper. He would not "give an inch to terrorism," he vowed.
"Let us expose the obscenity of these people saying it is concern for Iraq that drives them to terrorism," he said. "If it is concern for Iraq then why are they driving a car bomb into the middle of a group of children and killing them?"
However, he acknowledged it is important that the international community worked to take away "legitimate causes on which these people prey."
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a "legitimate concern," he said, as is poverty in Africa.
But Blair stressed there is "no justification for suicide bombing whether in Palestine, Iraq, in London, in Egypt, in Turkey, anywhere. In the United States of America, there is no justification for it. Period."
