Blair defends decision to remove Iraq's Saddam from power

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair remained adamant that the world was a better place for the removal of Iraq leader Saddam Hussein in the US-led invasion of the country in 2003.

Speaking after the publication of the Chilcot report into the war, Blair defended his promise to then US President George W Bush that he was “with you, whatever”, saying it was not a guarantee to go into conflict.

"We were giving the United States a very clear commitment that we would be alongside them in dealing with this issue," Blair told the BBC on Thursday.

The report severely criticised the Blair government's handling on intelligence before the invasion and management of the post-conflict phase, saying the threat from Saddam was overstated, troops were sent into battle ill-prepared and the allies had "wholly inadequate" plans post victory.

It also said the intelligence services had used flawed information on which to base the main case for war – the alleged existence of weapons of mass destruction.

No weapons were ever found, completely undermining suggestions from Blair before the invasion that Iraq had the capability to launch a missile strike in 45 minutes.

"The judgements about the severity of the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of a mass destruction - WMD - were presented with a certainty that was not justified. Despite explicit warnings, the consequences of the invasion were underestimated," the report's author Sir John Chilcot said.

Blair acknowledged that, in hindsight, he it would have been better to challenge the intelligence services “more clearly".
"It wasn't that I wanted to believe it. I did believe it and one of the reasons for that was because Saddam Hussein had used these weapons against his own people."

"I can regret the mistakes and I can regret many things about it but I genuinely believe, not just that we acted out of good motives, and I did what I did out of good faith, but I sincerely believe that we would be in a worse position if we hadn't acted that way. I may be completely wrong about that," Blair said in his BBC interview.