Blair Says He 'Would have Quit' over Iraq Weapons Dossier Row

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, August 29, 2003

Blair Says He 'Would have Quit' over Iraq Weapons Dossier Row

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair told an inquiry Thursday that he would have quit if the allegation were true that his government had "sexed up" evidence over Iraq's banned weapons in last September's dossier.

"This was an absolutely fundamental charge," Blair told Lord Hutton's inquiry into the death of arms expert David Kelly, the source for a BBC report in May claiming Downing Street had exaggerated its case for war against Iraq by doctoring the dossier.

"This was an allegation that we had behaved in a way which ... if true would have merited my resignation," he said, challenging the worst crisis in his six-year rule sparked by the Kelly affair.

The dossier contained a key claim that Iraq could unleash weapons of mass destruction (WMD) within 45 minutes.

Blair said he had "no knowledge of Kelly's involvement" in the dossier and the dossier was also not designed to make the case for an immediate war. Instead, the dossier was drawn up because of a renewed sense of urgency after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

He admitted he wanted the dossier to be as "strong as possible" since his government had been under great pressure from the public to justify war. However, he emphasized it was entirely based on intelligence.

Blair said he had seen three drafts of the dossier and made various comments before its publication, but not about the 45 minutes claim.

Kelly, a former UN arms inspector in Iraq, died with a slit wrist on July 18, days after his name was leaked to the public as the source of the BBC report.

As Blair arrived at the High Court in central London to give evidence, up to 100 anti-war protesters waited outside and jeered at him.

More than two-thirds of Britons say they believe, from what they have heard so far in the inquiry, that they were deceived by the government about Iraq's WMD, a poll showed earlier this week.

Blair is the second serving British prime minister to face the scrutiny of a judicial inquiry. The only other was Blair's Conservative predecessor, John Major, who was questioned in 1994 about illegal arms sales to Iraq before the 1991 Gulf War.

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