Blair: Iraq is improving
The Prime Minister has stressed that the situation in Iraq is improving and said he remains as confident as ever that removing Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do.
Tony Blair’s comments come ahead of Wednesday’s publication of the Butler Report into the UK’s gathering and use of intelligence prior to the war in Iraq in light of the fact that no weapons of mass destruction have yet been found.
Speaking at a joint press conference with the Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Mr Blair conceded that Iraq remained afflicted with the problems of terrorism.
But he stressed: “I think it is very difficult to look at Iraq today and look at Iraq under Saddam and say that we would be better off, the world would be safer, and we would be more secure if Saddam was still in charge of Iraq.”
“It is far too early to be anything other than immensely cautious but I think that you can get a sense from Iraq that the Iraqi people know very well the prospect they have for the future.”
Pointing to the recent appointment of an Iraqi government “which will eventually lead to a properly democratically elected government”, he described Iraq as “a country which can be a stable partner in the international community and make use of the enormous wealth that it has”.
Turning to the continuing domestic opposition against the war, the Prime Minister said: “I have long come to the conclusion that there is no way you can convince some people who are opposed to the war for reasons I don’t disrespect at all.
“However, I hope people also don’t disrespect those of us who came to the view then and hold the view now that with the history of Saddam and what he did, not just to his own country but to the wider world, that we are better, safer and more secure without him in office.”
Mr Blair said it is his “duty” to deal with security threats “no matter how unpopular” the decisions are. He defined the security threat as a combination of terrorism and the proliferation and development of chemical and biological weapons, saying that: “We have to take a stand against that threat and that threat is by no means over.”
He highlighted breakthroughs such as the removal of Al Qaeda training grounds in Afghanistan and the fact that Libya has decided to abandon weapons of mass destruction, and pointed out that a security threat to one part of the world now affects the whole world. As such he said that those backing war did so because they felt it was right to do so, not in order to gain a “pat on the back from America”.
The Prime Minister received his copy of the Butler Report this afternoon, with opposition leaders due to receive theirs tomorrow morning.
The inquiry has so far proved remarkably leak proof and there are no clear signals as to what judgements it will make.
