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Blair denies he will not be trusted again to lead UK to war

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Brighton, England, Sept 29, IRNA -- Prime Minister Tony Blair 
Wednesday accepted that he had paid a political price for the 
Iraq war, but denied that his government would not be trusted again 
to lead Britain into another war. 
"I am afraid that I don`t accept that people won`t trust a 
judgment that is made, provided the evidence is given to them," Blair 
told BBC radio. 
"It`s absolutely right that evidence has got to be credible," he 
said, after he apologized on Tuesday for mistakes made in 
intelligence claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass 
destruction in justifying the Iraq war. 
The prime minister was asked whether he could remain in office if 
he could not be trusted again to lead Britain into another war, but he
insisted that it was a hypothetical question. 
"We don`t have such a situation," he said. 
Although Blair still refused to apologize for leading Britain 
into war against Iraq, he admitted that there had been a "political 
price" for doing what he believed in. 
"It is a decision in terms of, let`s say, popular support that 
has not done me a great deal of good," he said. 
In a separate interview Wednesday with GMTV, Blair admitted for 
the first time that what was happening in post-war Iraq was "tragic," 
and suggested that Britain needed to remain there for the "war on 
terror." 
"It is also extremely important for our country because the 
terrorists who are coming in from the outside and making Iraq the 
battleground," he said. 
The prime minister said that it was also in Britain`s interests 
in that "if we defeat them there and we get Iraq on the way to 
democracy, then actually that is going to help our own security here 
in this country." 
Asked again whether the public was owed an apology for misleading 
Britain into war on a false premises, he replied: "Well they don`t, 
because we have had four separate inquiries that have looked into 
this issue." 
Blair also refused to accept that the loss of public trust in 
his leadership caused by Iraq could cost Labour power in the next 
election. 
"I believe actually when you come to the election, people 
will vote on other issues," he said, listing the economy, jobs, 
the investment in health and education, anti-social behavior 
legislation and immigration measures. 
HC/2321/1432