Tony Blair refuses to be bound by Chilcot Iraq War report

Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair on Sunday refused to confirm he would accept the findings of a long-awaited official report into the Iraq war as he defended his decision to remove Saddam Hussein in the 2003 invasion.

Appearing on the BBC’s Andrew Marr show, Blair said he would vigorously defend his record when the Chilcot report was finally published on July 6. However, he rejected the main allegation that he had been privately committed to the invasion of Iraq before making his position clear in public.

Asked if he would accept the report’s findings, Blair said “let’s wait for that point.” But he added: “If you go back and see what was said I don’t think anyone can dispute that I was making clear what my position was.”

He also said: “By the way – when it does happen – we have then a full debate. I look forward to participating in that – make no mistake about that.”

Blair also vigorously defended his decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

“If you take the countries on the critical list today – which would be Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen. In only one of those cases have you got a government that is capable of fighting terrorism and that is internationally legitimate – both by Saudi Arabia and Iran – and whose prime minister turns up at the White House, and that’s Iraq.”

He rejected the accusation that the chaos in the aftermath of the 2003 invasion helped cre-ate ISIL.

“I understand all of the issues – and we’ll debate them when it comes to Chilcot – but this idea that all of this comes f-rom the decision to remove Saddam, no.”

He said he hadn’t seen the Chilcot report.