Prime Minister Tony Blair on Wednesday vigorously denied misrepresenting pre-war intelligence on Iraqi weapons and rejected growing demands for an apology from opponents in Parliament who accuse him of misleading the country.
Blair again accepted that British intelligence pointing to stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons was flawed, but insisted he had been right to back the United States-led invasion.
”I take full responsibility and apologise for any information given in good faith that has subsequently turned out to be wrong,” Blair told the House of Commons in a stormy session dominated by the war.
”What I do not in any way accept is that there was any deception of anyone. I will not apologise for removing Saddam Hussein. I will not apologise for the conflict. I believe it was right then, is right now and essential for the wider security of that region and world.”
Eighteen months on from the US-led invasion, Iraq still haunts Blair and dominates the political debate in Britain.
Blair’s principal reason for joining the US-led offensive was his belief that Saddam had stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The government highlighted the danger in a September 2002 dossier as it tried to persuade a skeptical public of the need for war.
But an official inquiry concluded in July that British intelligence on Iraqi WMD was flawed, that the government had pushed its case to the limits of available intelligence and had left out vital caveats in the dossier.
Four inquiries have cleared Blair’s government of deliberately misleading the public about the Iraqi threat, but that has failed to satisfy his political opponents.
Opposition Conservative Party leader Michael Howard pointed out on Wednesday that before the war, Blair said intelligence had ”established beyond doubt” that Saddam had continued to produce chemical and biological weapons, when evidence was patchy at best.
”I support the war. It was the right thing to do,” said Howard. ”But will you realise that before you can move on, there is one matter that you must deal with. You didn’t accurately report the intelligence you received to the country. Will you now say sorry for that?”
Blair hotly contested any suggestion he misled the country.
”I cannot bring myself to say that I misrepresented the evidence, since I do not accept that I did,” he countered.
Blair accused Howard of ”playing politics” over Iraq. Howard supported the war and his subsequent attacks have opened him to charges of ”flip-flopping” on the issue, like US Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.
”Having supported the war, having urged us to go to war, [he] is now trying to capitalise on anti-war sentiment to try to give himself credibility,” Blair said, to loud cheers of support from his own Labour Party lawmakers.
The fall-out from the war continues to plague Blair.
The Iraq Survey Group last week concluded that no WMD stockpiles existed in Iraq on the eve of the invasion. The government was further embarrassed on Tuesday when it acknowledged that spy masters have now formally withdrawn a claim that Saddam could have launched chemical and biological weapons on 45 minutes’ notice. The claim had featured prominently in the government’s dossier.
After a review of intelligence, the spy agency MI6 had ruled the source of the claim, an Iraqi military officer in western Iraq, was unreliable. MI6 had been directed to the source by the Iraqi National Accord, an opposition group linked with Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi.
But Blair appears to be weathering the storm. Although his popularity slumped in the wake of the invasion, according to recent opinion polls it has stabilised and he is considered more trustworthy than his main political opponents. — Sapa-AP