Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

Blair accepts Iraqi weapons may never be found

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a significant change of stance, said he now accepted that weapons of mass destruction might never be found in Iraq.

He defended last year's invasion of Iraq, however, saying it was justified after many years of UN Security Council resolutions condemning Saddam Hussein's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

The primary reason for the invasion of Iraq is now Saddam’s pursuit of nuclear arms and chemical and biological weapons some of which the United States and Britain had already helped Saddam obtain.
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Blair accepts Iraqi weapons may never be found

LONDON (AFP) Jul 06, 2004
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, in a significant change of stance, said Tuesday he now accepted that weapons of mass destruction might never be found in Iraq.

"I have to accept that we haven't found them, that we may not find them," said Blair during a question-and-answer exchange with senior members of the British parliament.

"We don't know what has happened to them," Blair added. "They could have been removed. They could have been hidden. They could have been destroyed."

He defended last year's invasion of Iraq, however, saying it was justified after many years of UN Security Council resolutions condemning Saddam Hussein's pursuit of chemical, biological and nuclear arms.

"I do not believe there was not a threat in relation to weapons of mass destruction... We have found very clear evidence of intent and desire," the prime minister said.

"I genuinely believe that those weapons were there and that is why the international community came together as they did... Whether they were hidden, removed or destroyed, (Saddam) was in clear breach of UN resolutions."

Prior to Tuesday, when he was meeting the chairmen of the various select committees of the House of Commons, Blair had never gone so far as to say Saddam's presumed arsenal might never be found.

Instead, he routinely told people to wait for the findings of the Iraq Survey Group, which has been hunting for weapons of mass destruction since the US and British invasion of Iraq in March last year.

Blair's apparent change of tack might be timed ahead of the July 14 release of a report by an independent inquiry led by former top civil servant Lord Robin Butler into the use and quality of British intelligence in the run-up to war.

Political analysts speculate that Blair might use Butler's report as the opportunity to make a partial apology over the Iraq war -- possibly to say that he erred in linking it so firmly to Saddam's illicit firepower.

That could enable him to finally escape the lingering shadow of Iraq before parliament breaks for its summer holidays, and then to focus public attention on domestic issues in the autumn.

From there, Blair could go on to call a general election -- with hopes of winning a third straight term in office -- in the first half of next year.

During his relaxed, semi-annual exchange with the committee chairmen, Blair, testifying in shirtsleeves, defended Britain's so-called "special relationship" with the United States, saying it was nothing to be ashamed of.

"Let people say whatever they like about it," he said.

"But in the end I believe it is an important relationship for us because we share their values and we share their view that the best security we ultimately have is the spread of freedom and democracy and justice throughout the world."

He insisted that Britain also had good relations with fellow EU heavyweights France and Germany, which both vigorously opposed the Iraq war.

But he stressed that so long as he was prime minister, he would never allow Britain's ties with the United States to be "subordinated to the interests of any other country".

http://www.spacewar.com/2004/040706134054.2zv2jr74.html