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Blair recalled for questioning at Iraq inquiry

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, Dec 9, IRNA -- Former British prime minister Tony Blair is to be recalled to be further questioned by Iraq Inquiry a year after he first gave evidence about Britain’s role in 2003 war.

Inquiry Chair Sir John Chilcot Wednesday also listed former foreign secretary Jack Straw among a dozen officials and military leaders asked to appear in front of the five-member panel to provide “more details” in a third series of hearings in January and February.

“I am committed to taking the majority of this evidence in public. In some cases we will be writing to witnesses or government departments asking them to provide a written statement of events, and responding to specific questions set out by the Committee. In other cases we will be taking oral evidence,” Chilcot said.

He announced that again there would be a ballot due to the expected high level of demand for seats in the 60-seat hearing room for when Blair gives evidence which would be between January 18 and February 4 with the exact date to be announced a week in advance.

In his first session in January this year, the former premier defended his decision to take Britain into the US-led war, saying he had no regrets about it and that Saddam Hussein was a 'monster'.

In seven hours of questioning earlier, he claimed that the Iraqi regime posed a danger to international security and insisted he would take the same decision again.

Since the last public hearings in July, the panel has visited the US and Iraq, held further private meetings, including with military veterans and reviewed more than 30 submissions from international lawyers as well as analysing vast documentary record.

Last month, an international law professor expressed concern that the Iraq Inquiry had shown an inability to tackle the central question of the illegality or otherwise of the 2003 war.

Philippe Sands from University College London Sands said he had seen some unpublished documents which contradicted or undermined the testimony given by witnesses to the year-long inquiry.

After being elected as Labour leader in September, Ed Miliband sought to distance himself from some of Blair’s past mistakes, saying his government was “wrong” to invade Iraq and making clear that the war should not have happened without clear UN backing.

Deputy Prime Minister and Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has also repeated in the parliament that he believed that the war was illegal, although he said it was not necessarily the view of the current coalition government.

Last week, secret US embassy cables published by WikiLeaks revealed that the British government had promised to protect America's interests ahead of the launch of the inquiry into the Iraq war last year, although details were not provided on how this would be achieved.

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Islamic Republic News Agency/IRNA NewsCode: 30116253