Blair: Why I Disregarded Iraq War Advice

Tony Blair has revealed he disregarded his a warning that attacking Iraq would be illegal without further UN backing because the guidance was "provisional".

The former prime minister made the revelation in a statement ahead of his second appearance at the Chilcot Inquiry into the March 2003 invasion.

He was questioned by inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot and his panel about possible gaps and inconsistencies in Mr Blair's justification for the war.

The-then attorney general Lord Goldsmith told Mr Blair on January 14, 2003, that UN Resolution 1441 was not enough on its own to justify the use of force against Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The resolution declared Iraq in "material breach" of its obligations to disarm and paved the way for the return of weapons inspectors.

But the next day Mr Blair told the Commons there were circumstances where Britain could go to war without further UN backing.

Mr Blair has now said: "I had not yet got to the stage of a formal request for advice and neither had he (Lord Goldsmith) got to the point of formally giving it.

"So I was continuing to hold to the position that another resolution was not necessary."

The peer revealed he was "uncomfortable" about Mr Blair's public comments that Britain could attack Iraq without further UN support.

Mr Blair said he believed Lord Goldsmith would come around to his interpretation of the legal position once he knew the full history of the negotiations behind Resolution 1441.

In March 2003, before the invasion, Lord Goldsmith presented him with formal legal advice that a "reasonable case" could be made for launching an attack without extra UN backing.

Meanwhile, Mr Blair privately assured then-US president George Bush "you can count on us" in the run-up to the war.

The view was in a private note that will remain secret, but Mr Blair summed up its contents and that of other statements to Mr Bush.

He said he had told Mr Bush: "You can count on us, we are going to be with you in tackling this, but here are the difficulties."

The inquiry released a newly declassified document from March 2002 in which Mr Blair said the UK should be "gung ho" about the prospect of getting rid of Hussein.

In his evidence to the inquiry, Mr Blair said he made clear that he would always stand "shoulder to shoulder" with the Americans.

But he also claimed he succeeded in persuading the US leader to go down the "UN route" first.

The former prime minister said regime change in Baghdad had always been "on the agenda" for the Americans after the September 11 terror attacks in 2001.

He said the US and UK were trying to get a second UN resolution, and Chile and Mexico wanted to support them, but France was threatening a veto.

Mr Blair claimed the French were clear they would veto any resolution that included an ultimatum, and the US-French relationship had become "very scratchy".

Mr Blair said France believed Hussein was complying in part with weapons inspectors.

The US was arguing he was not fully complying. Mr Blair claimed without full compliance, action must follow.

The ex-PM argued that, if the US and UK had backed off from Iraq in March 2003, it was possible that Hussein would still be in power and have weapons of mass destruction.

Source - Yahoo.