Blair's boob a 'slip of tongue'

2006-11-18 22:49

Islamabad - Tony Blair's apparent agreement with a suggestion that the Iraqi war has been disastrous was a "straightforward slip of the tongue", said the British Prime Minister's official spokesperson on Saturday.

In an interview with Al-Jazeera's new English channel on Friday, interviewer David Frost suggested that the intervention in Iraq had "so far, been pretty much of a disaster".

Blair agreed that it had before quickly explaining the reasons for the growing sectarian violence.

The comments were seized on by the British media and the anti-war opposition parties on the day that it emerged that one of Blair's ministers had reportedly said the Iraq war was his "biggest mistake in foreign affairs".

Only half-listening

Margaret Hodge, Britain's normally on-message industry minister, was said to have broken ranks and also criticised his "moral imperialism" in foreign policy.

But Blair's spokesperson told reporters in Pakistan where the prime minister had arrived for talks with President Pervez Musharraf: "It was a straightforward slip of the tongue.

He added: "Sometimes he does this when he's half-listening to the question and wants to get on and respond.

"He doesn't think Iraq has been a disaster. He doesn't think getting a democratically elected government has been a disaster.

"He doesn't think that getting rid of Saddam Hussein was a disaster.

"But, what he does acknowledge is that there are difficulties and he doesn't, in any way, try to downplay those difficulties.

"But, if you read the rest of the answer, that's what he actually said."

In response to Frost's suggestion that "so far it (Iraq) has, you know, been pretty much of a disaster", Blair replied: "It has, but you see, what I say to people is: why is it difficult in Iraq?

Deliberate strategy

"It's not difficult because of some accident in planning.

"It is difficult because there is a deliberate strategy - al-Qaeda with Sunni insurgents on the one hand, Iranian-backed elements with Shia militia on the other - to create a situation in which the will of the majority of Iraq, which is for peace, is displaced by the minority which is for war."

- AFP