.contact us |.about us
News > International News ... ...
Search:
    Advertisement
Blair echoes Bush no regrets over Iraq war
( 2003-09-29 09:01) (Agencies)

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, echoing his comrade in arms President Bush, said on Sunday he had no regrets about launching the war that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Despite plummeting popularity and trust ratings due to the war, Blair said: "I don't apologize for Iraq. I am proud of what we have done."

Blair, like Bush in a radio address on Saturday, said he had no doubt Saddam had been "a serious threat to his region and to the wider world."

Both leaders said the world was a safer place without Saddam and Bush again accused the ousted leader of cultivating "ties to terror" and building weapons of mass destruction.

Bush sought to reassure Americans the invasion of Iraq was appropriate, despite the failure so far to find banned weapons and with U.S. occupation troops under daily guerrilla attack.

"The world is safer today," Bush said.

The leaders of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in Washington said in a letter dated Thursday to Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director George Tenet that much of the information relied upon was fragmentary or dated back to when U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998.

White House national security adviser Condoleezza Rice dismissed this on Sunday, saying new information was obtained before the war was launched in March about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

"The president believes that he had very good intelligence going into the war," Rice said on the "Fox News Sunday" program.

UNREST DOGS IRAQ

Unrest dogged Iraq over the weekend, with a guerrilla rocket attack on a Baghdad hotel housing officials of the U.S.-led occupation and Iraqi police saying American soldiers had killed four more Iraqi civilians.

U.S. troops said they found 23 SA-7 surface-to-air missiles and hundreds of weapons, including plastic explosives, buried in an orchard near Saddam's home town of Tikrit on Saturday.

Both Bush and Blair have had a tough week, with criticism mounting over the occupation and the failure to find the banned weapons that they cited to justify waging war.

Bush got a cool reception on Tuesday when he appealed to the United Nations for foreign troops and cash to bolster security and reconstruction in Iraq.

On Sunday, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Washington had given up hope that India might contribute soldiers.

But Washington still hopes to win a new U.N. resolution that would provide other countries the political cover they need to provide troops.

"The Turks are looking at it, Bangladesh is looking at it, Pakistan is looking at it, other nations are looking at the possibility of contributing troops. But none has made a firm commitment," Powell said in an interview with CNN.

French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin told French radio Europe1 the United States might get a new resolution through the Security Council, but he stressed it needed to transfer sovereignty to Iraqis to improve conditions in the country.

Britain's special representative to Iraq and former ambassador to the United Nations, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, said on Sunday the United States and Britain could bring peace to Iraq without international help.

"It would be a very good development if we had a wider international involvement, but that does not mean to say we cannot do what needs to be done with the forces we have deployed already," Greenstock told BBC radio.

BLAIR IN CRISIS TIMES

Both Blair and Bush face further challenges this week, with U.S. officials noting an interim report on Iraq could say no conclusive evidence has been found on banned weapons.

Blair, who has scored two landslide election wins, is going through the worst crisis in his leadership, both of his party and the country.

His government has been savaged in recent weeks by an official inquiry that has spotlighted the debate surrounding the prime minister's justification for attacking Iraq.

But Blair urged people to wait for the U.S. arms report and dismissed remarks by former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix that Saddam had probably destroyed most of his weapons in 1991.

Both Blair and Bush faced renewed anti-war, and anti-occupation, protests at the weekend, although the demonstrations around the world were only a shadow of the huge pre-war peace rallies.

 
Close  
   
  Today's Top News   Top International News
   
+Suspects detained in massive sex scandal
( 2003-09-28)
+China's urban schools asked to serve for migrant workers
( 2003-09-28)
+Hu: Stability essential to economic recovery
( 2003-09-27)
+Zhuhai hotel closed after Japanese orgy
( 2003-09-28)
+Experts see inclusive fiscal roadmap, potential of single currency system
( 2003-09-28)
+Bomb kills 11, wounds scores in southern Colombia
( 2003-09-29)
+Blair echoes Bush no regrets over Iraq war
( 2003-09-29)
+Italy grinds to halt in nationwide power blackout

( 2003-09-28)
+White House insists it had Iraq WMD intelligence

( 2003-09-28)
+Militants poised to strike in Indonesia - Paper
( 2003-09-28)
   
  Go to Another Section  
     
 
 
     
  Article Tools  
     
 
 
     
  Related Articles  
     
 

+Blair admits need to win back support
2003-09-28

+Hoon's high noon: UK minister back at Iraq inquiry
2003-09-22

+Intelligence chief: Dossier exaggerated the case for war
2003-09-04

+Comment: Spin doctor's firing may aid Blair
2003-09-02

+Top aide to Britain's Blair quits
2003-08-30

+Blair says Iraq data wasn't manipulated
2003-08-29

+Blair denies hyping Iraq threat; UK soldier killed
2003-08-29

+Embattled Blair faces dead UK scientist inquiry
2003-08-28

+Anti-war protester
2003-08-28

+UK's Hoon drags Blair into dead scientist Inquiry
2003-08-28

+Probe into Iraq expert's death puts focus on Blair
2003-08-11

+Focus: Who's at fault for Kelly's death?
2003-07-29

 
     
   
        .contact us |.about us
  Copyright By chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved