Blair defends going to war with Iraq

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, September 29, 2003

Blair defends going to war with Iraq

British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that he was right to go to war with Iraq in an interview with the BBC that was broadcast on Sunday.

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British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that he was right to go to war with Iraq in an interview with the BBC that was broadcast on Sunday.

"What we have delivered in that country is freedom, and for all the difficulties, let's not ignore that but actually be proud of what we have done," Blair told BBC's Breakfast with Frost program,stressing that he did not think he had anything to apologize for the decision to join the US-led war against Iraq.

Blair, the staunchest US ally on Iraq, also said he was still confident that prewar intelligence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction would be proven right.

The link between terrorist groups and oppressive states was a real threat, he added.

Blair's comments came as a survey by Internet company YouGov for the Sunday Observer newspaper found that more than 40 percent of Blair's ruling Labor Party members want Blair to quit before the next general election, and nearly 60 percent believe he was wrong to sanction military action against Iraq.

Opinion polls across other British weekend newspapers also point to the popularity of both Blair's party and himself having plummeted.

Amid heightened concerns over the frustratingly slow progress in post-war Iraq, eroding public support for the Iraq war, and thefact that no Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction have been found, Blair, the staunchest US ally on Iraq, is facing difficult times recently, local analysts said.

Furthermore, the inquiry led by British senior judge Lord Hutton into the death of David Kelly, the scientist at the heart of allegations that Britain's Iraq weapons dossier published last September was "sexed up," daily undermined public trust and confidence in Blair's government, they argued.

Blair, ahead of Labor's annual conference that begins on Sunday in Bournemouth, southern England, has admitted the controversy surrounding the Hutton Inquiry and the search for banned weapons in Iraq had taken its effect on his government and his personal popularity.

However, Blair told the Observer published on Sunday that he had no intention of resigning and would lead his party into the next general election, indicating he would serve a full third termif he was re-elected.

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