Blair admits Iraq invasion a 'disaster'

LONDON: Admitting that western forces have been powerless in containing the violence in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the invasion had been "disastrous".

 

Challenged in an interview on Al-Jazeera's new English-language channel that Western intervention in Iraq had "so far been pretty much of a disaster", Blair said: "It has."

 

Blair admitted that Western forces have been powerless to stop the violence, but stopped short of accepting the blame for plunging Iraq to the brink of civil war - blaming instead the insurgent uprising that has killed 125 British troops.

 

But his admission in the interview will be seen as an historic climb-down for Blair, who has always fought to put a positive gloss on often disastrous events.

 

Blair went on to say: "It has, but you see what I say to people is why is it difficult in Iraq? It is not difficult because of some accident in planning, but there is a deliberate strategy, Al Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militia on the other, to create a situation in which the will of the majority for peace is displaced by the will of the minority for war."

 

According to a report in The Times, his frank remarks came on the day that one of his most loyal ministers was reported to have described the war as "his big mistake in foreign affairs".

 

Margaret Hodge was said to have accused Blair of espousing "moral imperialism", remarks that she denied through an aide but which were recalled by people who attended the private meeting at which she was alleged to have made them.

 

Blair was speaking to Sir David Frost on the first edition of his Frost Over the World programme on Al-Jazeera International, which was launched on Wednesday.

 

His appearance is a boost for the network, which was once denounced as propaganda by Donald Rumsfeld, the former United States Defence Secretary, and is perhaps best known in Britain for broadcasting tapes from Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda.

 

After his apparent admission that the intervention had been a disaster, Blair insisted: "We are not walking away from Iraq. We will stay for as long as the government needs us to stay.

 

"And the reason for that is that what is happening in Iraq, as in Afghanistan, as elsewhere in parts of the Middle East, is a struggle between the decent majority of people, who want to live in peace together, and those who have an extreme and perverted and warped view of Islam, who want to create war," he said.

 

"In those circumstances, our task has got to be to stand up for the moderates and the democrats against the extremists and the sectarians, Blair said adding that they are testing our will at the moment, and our will has not to be found wanting."

 

Repeating his appeal to Iran and Syria to work together for Middle East peace Blair rejected as absurd suggestions that his readiness to work with the two countries amounted to appeasement.

 

He said that he had a message for Tehran and Damascus: "If you are prepared to be part of the solution, there is a partnership available to you. But at the moment, and this is particularly so in respect of what Iran is doing in supporting terrorism throughout the Middle East and acting in breach of its nuclear weapons obligations, you are behaving in such a way that makes such a partnership impossible."