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'What we did in Iraq was right'
30/07/2003 13:06 - (SA)
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that his government had yet to convince the British people that the Iraq war was justified.
Asked at his monthly news conference whether he believed voters didn't trust his administration, Blair said: "I accept there is an issue that we have to confront...
"People need to know that what we did in Iraq was right and justified and that's a case that we have to not just assert but prove over time, both in relation to weapons of mass destruction and in relation to the improvement of Iraq."
He refused to comment on questions regarding the suicide earlier this month of weapons adviser David Kelly, who was at the centre of a dispute over claims the government exaggerated the threat posed by Iraqi arms.
Blair said he would not comment on the Kelly affair before the start of a judicial inquiry, set up to examine the circumstances leading to the scientist's death. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday.
Neither would Blair comment on the status of his communications director, Alastair Campbell. Media reports have said Campbell is prepared to step down once the judicial inquiry completes its work.
Kelly was the main source for a British Broadcasting Corp. report citing claims from an unidentified official that Blair's office redrafted an intelligence dossier to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's arms.
The report sparked a furious dispute between the government, which denied the claims, and the state-funded broadcaster which stoutly defended its reporting.
Kelly's bosses at the defence ministry identified him as a possible source for the story, placing him under intense media pressure and leading him to testify before a parliamentary committee. The BBC confirmed Kelly was the official cited in the story two days after his body was found on July 18.
Asked whether he regretted the way his office took on the BBC over the dossier story, Blair said: "All we ever wanted was an incorrect story corrected."
A reporter asked at what point, if no weapons of mass destruction are found, the prime minister would have to acknowledge that he misled the nation on the case for war.
Blair said the Iraq Survey Group was now at work looking for evidence of such weapons.
"They haven't reported yet, let us wait and see when they come out with their report what the true facts are," Blair said.
The prime minister said voters would ultimately judge his government on domestic issues, rather than on the controversy surrounding the Iraq war.
"Whatever issues have been dominating the news for the past year frankly, the public in the end will judge us on the economy, the health service, schools, crime," Blair said. "Those are the big issues for the public."
On Saturday, Blair will reach a milestone of heading the longest continuous Labor Party government in British history.
"Overall I believe that we have done what we were elected to do. To keep the economy stable, to get people back to work, to invest in our public services and in doing so create a country that is more modern, stronger and more fair.
"It is the combination of economic efficiency and social justice that marks this Government out from its predecessors and is the platform on which we must build."
- AP
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