Iran is “at war” with the moderate Arab world and Western forces trying to bring peace and stability to the region, Tony Blair said yesterday.

Speaking at the end of his six-day trip to the Middle East, the Prime Minister said that he believed that Iraq and Afghanistan could still become holiday hotspots for tourists, following the example set by Dubai, which had more than a million British visitors this year. But before this could happen Arab nations needed to “wake up” to the threat posed by Iran, which he blamed for undermining peace in Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

“Here are elements of the Government of Iran, openly supporting terrorism in Iraq . . . trying to turn out a democratic government in Lebanon, flouting the international community’s desire for peace in Palestine — at the same time as denying the Holocaust and trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability. We have to wake up.

“These forces of extremism — based on a warped and wrong-headed misinterpretation of Islam — aren’t fighting a conventional war. But they are fighting one.” In response, he said, the Arab world should build an alliance of moderate nations to “pin back” Iran and prevent it from disrupting the region. He implied that countries in the Middle East such as the United Arab Emirates, where he finished his tour, were failing to give “clear backing” to forces of moderation.

One of the strategic goals of the trip had been to try to encourage moderate Arab countries to take a more active role backing peace. The Baker- Hamilton report into the future of Iraq suggested that the UAE could do more to dampen the sectarian violence.

However, Mr Blair’s meetings took place behind closed doors and no comment on them was made by leaders of the states that he visited.

Mr Blair also used the speech to business leaders in Dubai to denounce those in Britain who believed that war in Iraq had inflamed sectarian violence. He called for an “alliance of moderation” to tackle the forces of extremism. He also called on moderate countries to help those inside Iran who disagreed with the hardline policies of President Ahmadinejad.

The speech came after Mr Blair’s visits to Turkey, Egypt, Iraq, Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which he believes are linked by a common need to challenge extremism.

Mr Blair’s official spokesman denied that his call for other Middle Eastern countries, mostly dominated by Sunnis, to unite against Shia Iran amounted to a call for confrontation between the two Muslim traditions. He pointed out that Mr Blair had strongly supported Nouri al-Maliki, the Shia Prime Minister of Iraq, and insisted: “He works with people of all faiths. The important thing is what people do, not what their religious denomination is.”

Mr Blair denied that he was hindering the spread of democracy by championing the fledgeling steps towards representative government in the UAE, which allows 1 per cent of the population a say in the way the country is run. Last weekend 6,689 Emirati men and women voted to elect 20 members of a consultative assembly. A further 20 will be appointees of the Royal Family. Mr Blair said: “It has to move at its own pace but the direction is very clear. It has its own political issues because of the way the country has developed.”

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