Blair calls on “rogue” states to hand over WMD
Following his surprise visit yesterday to Basra, Iraq, Tony Blair has called on “rogue repressive states” to divest themselves of weapons of mass destruction.
On Sunday, Mr Blair, flying in from Egypt where he has been on holiday with his family, met 600 representatives of the 10,000 British soldiers stationed in southern Iraq.
He told British troops that Iraq was a ‘test case’ in the fight against brutal and repressive regimes and the UK’s contingent of servicemen and women had fought a “noble cause” in defeating Saddam Hussein.
Speaking to journalists on the flight home, he said: “Its important to say to countries that may have engaged in such programmes: ‘Look, there’s a different way of dealing with this’.
“I believe as strongly as I ever have this is the security threat and if we don’t deal with it we will rue the day we didn’t.”
The prime minister’s jet touched down at Heathrow Airport at 22:30 GMT on Sunday.
Mr Blair told reporters he stood by the Government’s belief that Iraq had harboured lethal weapons.
Mr Blair said: “The first thing is to wait for the Iraq Survey Group report. I don’t believe that the intelligence we got was wrong.
“We have got to wait and see what their report turns up.”
