Tony Blair admits ‘regret’ over accepting WMD intelligence

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Tony Blair expressed “regret” today that he did not challenge intelligence about Saddam Hussein’s alleged weapons of mass destruction after the damning Chilcot verdict into the Iraq war.

The former Prime Minister also strongly defended the decision to topple the dictator, arguing that not doing so may now have led to a worse situation in Iraq and beyond its borders.

But he admitted: “I may be completely wrong about that.”

Mr Blair was grilled for half an hour on BBC Radio 4 today about the scathing conclusions in the Chilcot report, including that the UK was taken to war in 2003 on the basis of “flawed” intelligence with inadequate preparation.

He denied that he did not challenge intelligence reports on Saddam’s supposed WMDs more rigorously because he wanted to believe them to justify going to war.

However, he accepted: “Certainly given our experience it would have been far better to have challenged them more clearly. I did believe it and one of the reasons for that was because Saddam Hussein had used these weapons against his own people.”

Searches after the war did not find the “vast stocks” of WMDs which the tyrant was alleged to have hidden.

But Mr Blair argued that he had the intent and expertise to pursue a nuclear and chemical weapons programme after sanctions were lifted.

“I can regret many things about it but I genuinely believe not just that we acted out of good motives, and I did what I did out of good faith, but that we would be in a worse position if we hadn’t acted that way.” he added: “I may be completely wrong about that.”

Mr Blair insisted despite the “terrible consequences” of the invasion — which saw Iraq plunged into a bloody sectarian civil war — the British-US military intervention had not been in vain.

He accepted the report’s finding that it would have been better if the Cabinet had been given Attorney General Lord Goldsmith’s written advice on the legality of the conflict rather than having to rely on an oral briefing. But he continued: “I personally don’t know what difference that would have made since he was there around the table.”

Following strong criticisms in the report about the inadequacy of the military equipment, such as the lightly protected Snatch Land Rovers, Mr Blair said no limits were put on the financial resources for the military action.

Military chiefs, though, have accused the Government of failing to provide the equipment needed in time.

Shadow health secretary Diane Abbott said: “I’m not going to be harsh about Tony Blair. He has destroyed his own reputation.

“For Tony Blair to say the struggle was not in vain suggests he has not really closely examined the chaos that was unleashed by the original, ill-fated decision by himself and George Bush.”

Families who lost loved ones have called for Mr Blair to be prosecuted over the invasion.

Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who served as UK ambassador to the UN in 2003, stressed Mr Blair sought a UN resolution backing intervention, but American officials thought it was a “waste of time”.

The senior diplomat said the then PM wanted more time before the invasion and argued it would have been “much safer” to grant UN weapons inspectors six more months to try to find any WMDs in Iraq.

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