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Chilcot report live: Blair expresses 'sorrow and apology' but mounts lengthy defence of Iraq war strategy Chilcot report live: Blair expresses 'sorrow and apology' but mounts lengthy defence of Iraq war strategy
(35 minutes later)
3.52pm BST
15:52
Q: You said history would be the judge of your decision on Iraq. And this is the first judgment of history. Why are you rejecting it?
Blair says he thinks Iraq will stabilise and the Middle East will stabilise.
There is a drive to get rid of sectarian politics, and replace it with rule-based politics.
Iraq under Hussein had no chance. Now it does have a chance, he says.
3.50pm BST
15:50
Q: You say your comments will not affect how you are seen. So is there any point giving this explanation?
Blair says he thinks there is more understanding in the country than people think.
And the report does not say he acted in bad faith.
He says people should trust a politician most when they are taking a difficult decision.
He thinks about this every day, he says. And he keeps coming back to the point that he was right to remove Hussein.
3.48pm BST
15:48
Q: Jonathan Powell and David Manning urged you to remove the phrase ‘I will be with you, whatever’ from your note to President Bush. So isn’t it disingenuous to claim it was not a blank cheque?
Blair says it was not a blank cheque. He says other words were removed from the draft. But he needed to be at the heart of US decision making. He needed to ensure they went down the UN route; and they did.
3.46pm BST
15:46
Q: Lots of people in the UK looked at George Bush and didn’t trust him. They thought he was gung-ho. What do feel about that, and are you still in touch with him?
Bush says he is in touch with many people.
He says his prompting encouraged Bush to commit to a Palestinian state. He says Bush committed to going down the UN route, even though others in the administration were opposed.
He says he “completely disagrees” with a line in the Chilcot report saying France and Germany have a strong relationship with the US, even though they opposed the invasion. He says France and Germany had to work hard to repair the damage done by their stance on Iraq.
Updated
at 3.47pm BST
3.40pm BST
15:40
Q: You have expressed sorrow, but you say you do not regret what you did. Can you see why people look at this and conclude they do not trust you?
Blair says there is no inconsistency between the two things.
He says he spends so much of his time considering this. He could not say he regrets something when he does not.
Q: You say the calculus of risk changed after 9/11. There were no links between al-Qaida and Iraq. But there are links between al-Qaida and Arab countries where you have built a business career.
He says he never claimed there was a link between Iraq and al-Qaida, although some in America did.
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at 3.50pm BST
3.36pm BST
15:36
Q: Jeremy Corbyn said today you made the case for the war in a way that was not justified. And a Labour frontbencher [Paul Flynn - see 1.44pm] has suggested you should be prosecuted?
Blair says parliament was not misled.
He would challenge his critics to read the reports he read, and not conclude that Saddam was developing WMDs.
Updated
at 3.37pm BST
3.34pm BST
15:34
Q: What mistakes do you apologise for?
Blair says if he was planning a campaign like this now, he would look much more carefully at the risk of external elements linking up with insurgent elements in the country.
He says the report does not address this point.
3.31pm BST
15:31
Q: Do you accept military resources were too stretched by trying to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Blair says he does not accept that. He remembers the cabinet meeting where this was discussed, and he insisted the Afghanistan operation should only go ahead if the military had the resources. He implies that the military told him they could cope with both campaigns.
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at 3.33pm BST
3.29pm BST
15:29
Q: You were warned that an invasion might increase the terrorist threat to the UK, and increase the threat of WMDs getting into the hands of terrorists.
Blair says the risk of WMDs getting into the wrong hands was not a reason for not trying to get rid of it.
And he says the terrorists attack countries in the west whatever. They attacked Belgium, which has not been involved in any wars.
Updated
at 3.29pm BST
3.26pm BST
15:26
If you’ve not yet seen it, here’s our useful guide to the key points from the Chilcot report.
Related: Chilcot report: key points from the Iraq inquiry
3.25pm BST
15:25
Q: Chilcot says British troops were humiliated in the south because they had to make a deal with insurgents.
Blair says he does not accept British troops were humiliated.
Q: What did you mean when you said you would be with President Bush “whatever”.
Blair says he meant whatever the political difficulties. But it had to be done in the right way, he says.
He says he persuaded Bush to go down the UN route.
Updated
at 3.27pm BST
3.22pm BST
15:22
Q: You have apologised to the families for the first time. Do you understand why families want to see you pay a price for what you did?
Blair says he has apologised before for the mistakes.
It is up to the families to call for what they want, he says.
He is trying to explain what he did.
Please don’t accuse me of lying, he says.
3.20pm BST
15:20
Blair says decision not to bomb Syria in 2013 was 'a fundamental mistake'
Q: You create the decision you are apologising. But you say you stand by your decision. So what are you apologising for?
For the mistakes.
Q: What mistakes?
For the mistakes with planning and process, Blair says.
But Blair says he does not regret the decision he took.
He says he is in the Middle East two or three times a month. He knows the roots of Islamist extremism go far deeper than Iraq.
He says the west will be less safe if it does not intervene.
He says the Chilcot report does not address the need for strategy.
Updated
at 3.25pm BST
3.15pm BST3.15pm BST
15:1515:15
Blair criticises Chilcot for not considering what might have happened if Saddam had remained in powerBlair criticises Chilcot for not considering what might have happened if Saddam had remained in power
Q: Isn’t it disingenuous to say what is happening in Syria now has no links to Iraq? Some of the Islamic State figures are people held in American camps in Iraq.Q: Isn’t it disingenuous to say what is happening in Syria now has no links to Iraq? Some of the Islamic State figures are people held in American camps in Iraq.
Blair says he is not saying there is no link. But Isis only flourished when ungovernable space opened up in Syria.Blair says he is not saying there is no link. But Isis only flourished when ungovernable space opened up in Syria.
He says nowhere in the report does Chilcot say what might have happened if Saddam had been left in power.He says nowhere in the report does Chilcot say what might have happened if Saddam had been left in power.
UpdatedUpdated
at 3.16pm BSTat 3.16pm BST
3.14pm BST3.14pm BST
15:1415:14
As Tony Blair continues to answer questions, here are the Guardian’s Luke Harding and Ewen MacAskill with their reaction to the Chilcot report.As Tony Blair continues to answer questions, here are the Guardian’s Luke Harding and Ewen MacAskill with their reaction to the Chilcot report.
UpdatedUpdated
at 3.18pm BSTat 3.18pm BST
3.11pm BST
15:11
Q: You could have said no, and let America invade on its own. Our forces did not play an important part.
Blair says he does not accept that. Our forced played a big role, he says.
And if Britain had abandoned the US at the last moment, that would have been a big decision, he says.
3.09pm BST
15:09
Q: You said to President Bush in July 2002 you would be with him “whatever”. That looked like a blank cheque.
Blair says it was not a blank cheque. It was not read that way in America, as correspondence with Colin Powell shows, he says.
And the letter was about going down the UN route. That meant, if Iraq complied with the terms of the UN resolution, there would have been no war.
3.08pm BST
15:08
Blair's Q&A
Q: Would you do it again? And what do you say to the families of the soldiers who died who want you to look them in the eye and say you did not mislead them?
Blair says he can look the nation in the eye and say he did not mislead them.
And he cannot say he took the wrong decision, he says.
He says many people disagreed with him. That is their right. There were no lies. But there was a decision. There was a decision to get rid of Saddam Hussein and to stand by America. He says Chilcot came close to disagreeing.
But if you disagree, you have to consider what the alternatives are.
He says decision makers have to take decisions.
If you are not prepared to say what else you would do, you are a commentator, not a decision maker.
3.04pm BST
15:04
Blair is winding up now.
He thanks Sir John Chilcot and his team, and pays tribute to the late Sir Martin Gilbert.
We cannot make decisions with hindsight, he says. But we can learn from mistakes.
There will not be a day of my life when I do not relive and rethink what happened.
He says this is why he is spending so much time working to promote peace in the Middle East.
Updated
at 3.06pm BST
3.02pm BST
15:02
Blair is now addressing what lessons can be learnt.
He says since stepping down as prime minister he has been studying the origins of Islamist extremism. This is a global problem, he says.
He say he has seen today’s politicians deal with the same problems he faced in Libya and Syria.
He will publish more detailed proposals in due course.
He says the problem is that, in these countries, extremism spreads if there is a power vacuum. That is why in a country like Syria it would be best to negotiate with withdrawal of the regime.
He says it is important to show that the west is not just intervening in Muslim countries.
A different type of military approach is necessary, he says.
He says western countries have a low tolerance of casualties. That means they are reluctant to commit ground forces. But the western troops are best. That means there is a need for a rethink. There might be a case for demanding a different level of commitment, he says.
He says international rules need to be revised.
To combat extremism, a strategy is needed, combining hard power and soft power.
The west has to decide whether it has a strategic interest in fighting Islamist extremism. And it needs to consider what commitment it should make. Blair says his view is that the west should commit to this.
Updated
at 3.03pm BST
2.57pm BST
14:57
Blair says that if Saddam had been left in power, there might have been an Arab spring uprising in Iraq, with Saddam in power. And that would have created another Syria, he says.
He says in 2010 Iraq was relatively stable.
Islamic State emerged in Syria, after the uprising started there, he says.
He says at least there is a legitimate government in Iraq.
He is not excusing the failures, he says. But he says all decisions are difficult in a dangerous world. And the only thing a decision maker can do is take decisions.
Updated
at 2.58pm BST
2.54pm BST
14:54
Blair says he does not accept that it would have been better to have left Saddam in place.
He would have been strengthened if the US had backed down, he says.
Updated
at 3.15pm BST
2.50pm BST
14:50
Blair says full legal advice should have been shown to cabinet
Blair says he accepts it would have been better to have given the full legal advice to cabinet.
But it was not requested by cabinet, he says. And it was not normal to share it with cabinet.
Blair says he accepts there is case for sharing it with parliament too.
2.49pm BST
14:49
Blair says cabinet should have been given an options paper on Iraq
He says the cabinet debated Iraq 26 times before the invasion.
But he could and should have insisted on an options paper being debated by cabinet, he says.
Updated
at 2.53pm BST
2.48pm BST
14:48
Blair turns to the planning for post-conflict Iraq.
He says the inquiry has identified serious failings. But the inquiry itself could not suggest alternative approaches, he says.
He says his planning focused on the risks he was warned about: a humanitarian disaster, the use of WMDs and reconstruction problems.
But the main problem was terrorism. This had not been anticipated, he says.
Updated
at 2.52pm BST