Blair Denies "Covert" Deal with Bush over Iraq

World | January 29, 2010, Friday // 17:08|  views

A protester dressed as the former British prime minister Tony Blair demonstrates outside the Iraq Inquiry in central London, Britain 29 January 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Tony Blair has denied striking a "covert" deal with George Bush to invade Iraq at a private meeting in 2002 at the US president's ranch, BBC reported.

He told the Iraq inquiry there was no secret about what was said - that Saddam Hussein had to be dealt with and "the method of doing that is open".

The former prime minister was also quizzed about the claim Saddam could launch weapons at 45 minutes' notice.

He said "it would have been better" if headlines about it had been corrected.

Blair began the afternoon by session by being quizzed about negotiations at the UN on the eve of the invasion.

Asked if he thought America would have been happy to "offer a way out" if Britain decided against going to war, he said: "I think the Americans would have done that."

"I think President Bush at one point said, before the [Commons] debate, 'Look if it's too difficult for Britain, we understand'.

"I took the view very strongly then - and do now - that it was right for us to be with America, since we believed in this too."

Quoting frequently from his own speeches and statements, Blair faced a sometimes tense morning session, with family members of service personnel killed in Iraq sat behind him in the public gallery reacting with dismay to some of his answers.

Blair has used the hearing to mount an impassioned defence of the decision to go to war, telling the panel: "This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception.

"It's a decision. And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam's history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he had caused, given 10 years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?"

Sometimes it is important not to ask the "March 2003 question" but the "2010 question", said Blair, arguing that if Saddam had been left in power the UK and its allies would have "lost our nerve" to act.

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Tags: Blair, Bush, Iraq

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