LONDON: Lined with shisha bars, kabab houses and food shops piled high with Middle Eastern sweets, London’s Edgware Road, nicknamed Little Arabia, may seem an unlikely new home for ex-prime minister Tony Blair.

Some commentators predicted he would get a hostile welcome from locals who disagreed with the 2003 Iraq war, after buying a house just around the corner in Connaught Square.

But many people with Middle Eastern roots seem ready to give Blair and his family a warm welcome — in contrast to some of his well-heeled European neighbours, who worry about security problems.

Fadi George, 42, said it would be “good for him (Blair) to be here” as he takes over as the Quartet’s new envoy to the Middle East, and believed the neighbourhood could give him insights into his role.

As the country’s former prime minister, Blair deserved respect, regardless of the situation in Iraq, he said.

“We are all guests in Britain. I’m a British citizen but I’m Lebanese as well,” George, owner of Blinks hair and beauty salon, added.

“When I took the British citizenship, I made also the oath to respect the country and this country has invited me in — I can’t come and say things against it.” Blair’s new $7.3 million home is a four-storey, 19th century property on a grand square just off Edgware Road, with Porsches and Jaguars lined up in the parking bays.

The square is built around a tree-lined private garden, where Blair and his wife Cherie met neighbours at the annual neighbourhood party last month, while children in straw hats stream in and out of a private junior school at one end.

But there are fears among residents that the calm will be shattered when the Blairs take up residence in the coming weeks.

Those were not soothed when anti-war protestors beating drums held a demonstration outside the Blairs’ house, just north of

Hyde Park, one night earlier this month which went on until

10:00pm (2100 GMT).

“Some are pleased to see the Blairs there, others are very unhappy, quite a few are scared for their own security, that a bomb might be put there,” said J.P. Floru, a local Westminster City councillor.

“I believe they have asked for the possibility of bomb-proof glass in all their windows.”

The Blair family cannot move in yet as builders are still renovating their house, but there is already a 24-hour police guard on the house and closed-circuit television cameras are being installed.

And police have suspended some parking in the square under anti-terror laws, prompting another councillor, Danny Chalkley, to say the council has “no desire to see Westminster’s residential areas turned into mini-fortresses”.

Underlining the discontent of some, a petition has gone around the neighbours, reportedly reading: “If the risk to the Blairs is so great, the security services should advise them that they ought not to be living here.” A minutes’ walk — and a world of atmosphere — away in Edgware Road, the bittersweet smell of grilling meat wafted out from restaurants and Arabic was the main language rising from the hubbub on the street.

Their reaction to the Blairs seemed a far cry from a scene in a television satire about Blair’s life after Downing Street, screened earlier this year, which imagined Cherie being spat at when she ventured out on to the street.

Fayez Beainy, 25, was working the till at the Ranoush Juice cafe behind vast trays of tomatoes, peppers, hummus and lettuce, taking money from a steady stream of customers as he talked.

Originally from Lebanon, he did not welcome what is happening in Iraq, but believed Blair’s move to the area “means he’s coming closer to us and it’s a very good sign”.

Beainy was also clear about the benefits of life in Britain post-Blair.

“Look at that,” he added, pointing at the buzzing scene outside.

“Everybody is working in the UK so I’m really grateful, (in) this country you can do everything. It’s a cosmopolitan community, you’re always welcome here.” Meanwhile, George was gazing over the road, where small groups of Arab men were puffing on hookahs outside a cafe.

He said local people should take a “neutral” view of their famous new neighbour.

“This is a free country, people can say what they want, but when you go and criticise something, you have to go and have a solution,” he said.

“You can’t sit around a shisha and criticise what’s happening in Iraq — what’s the solution?”—AFP