BRITAIN:THE BRITISH government has dismissed as "inconceivable" a suggestion from Tony Blair's former chief of staff Jonathan Powell that it might at some point want to open talks with al-Qaeda.
Mr Powell repeated the suggestion yesterday in a second interview ahead of the publication of his book on the Northern Ireland peace process, Great Hatred, Little Room, whose serialisation starts in the Guardiantoday.
The book will be closely examined for any fresh revelations about Britain's secret channel of communication to the IRA at the height of the Troubles and for evidence as to the thinking behind the settlement Mr Blair secured.
The book could also trigger renewed debate as to whether - as former SDLP deputy first minister Séamus Mallon has alleged - Blair deliberately lost "middle unionism and middle nationalism" in order to forge the powersharing deal between the DUP and Sinn Féin.
The weekend focus, however, was on the Blairite belief that Northern Ireland's peace process provides a template for conflict resolution around the world.
In his Saturday interview for the Guardian, Mr Powell, drawing on his experience of the North, said the conclusion he had reached was "that one of the crucial things in this work was having a link to the IRA right from the '70s onwards." Although unused for long periods, he says, there was always a way both sides could communicate.
Asked if the same principle should be applied to al-Qaeda, Mr Powell replied: "I would say the analogy with al-Qaeda is there's nothing to say to al-Qaeda and they've got nothing to say to us at the moment." However, he said: "But at some stage you're going to have to come to a political solution as well as a security solution.
"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-Qaeda. It's not an easy step to take, and with al-Qaeda there's a practical problem of finding who you want to talk to, how you'd establish a channel. But I would be urging people to make an effort to do that."
Freed of office, Mr Powell's comments contrast with the Blair Downing Street's terse response last May when then Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain invoked the "lessons" of Northern Ireland to urge "a fundamental re-balancing" of British foreign policy.
The line then was that negotiations had only become possible after the Provisional IRA and Sinn Féin dropped their "impossible" demand for British withdrawal.
Reacting to Mr Powell's comments, a foreign office spokesman said: "It is inconceivable that Her Majesty's Government would ever seek a mutually acceptable accommodation with a terrorist organisation like al-Qaeda."
Mr Powell also confirmed that Gordon Brown had walked past him every week for 10 years without every saying hello.
During the "cash for honours" investigation, Mr Powell recalls Gerry Adams calling him "to express his solidarity" and ask "if Tony and I would seek political status if we went to prison."