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Thursday, Oct 14, 2004

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International

Blair apologises over Iraq

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, OCT. 13. At last, the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, on Wednesday apologised to Parliament that he got the intelligence on Iraq wrong but said he "will not apologise" for removing Saddam Hussein. "It was a difficult choice. I took the choice, I stick by it," he said.

`Illegal war'

Mr. Blair's apology came after he was grilled by MPs who accused him of `misrepresenting' intelligence to make the case for war. The Liberal Democrat Leader Charles Kennedy said that since the principal basis for the war had proved to be wrong and regime change was "contrary to international law" he should accept that he led the country into an "illegal war."

But Mr. Blair insisted that the war was not illegal and was prompted by Iraq's refusal to comply with U.N. resolutions. He also denied that he deliberately misled the country over Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction and claimed that everybody at the time accepted the `evidence.' "I have already apologised for any information that subsequently turns out to be wrong," Mr. Blair said.

But critics pointed out that this was the first time that he had been so explicit in admitting that his intelligence claims were wrong.

Mr. Blair's contrite words came a day after the Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, formally withdrew the intelligence claim that Saddam Hussein could deploy his WMDs within 45 minutes. The Opposition said that the withdrawal of the claim further wrecked the Government's credibility.

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