{"id":25041,"date":"2014-06-15T07:13:36","date_gmt":"2014-06-15T07:13:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=25041"},"modified":"2014-06-15T07:13:36","modified_gmt":"2014-06-15T07:13:36","slug":"tony-blair-we-didnt-cause-iraq-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2014\/06\/tony-blair-we-didnt-cause-iraq-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony Blair: ‘We didn’t cause Iraq crisis’"},"content":{"rendered":"
The 2003 invasion of Iraq is not to blame for the violent insurgency now gripping the country, former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said.<\/p>\n
Speaking to the BBC’s Andrew Marr, he said there would still be a “major problem” in the country even without the toppling of Saddam Hussein in 2003.<\/p>\n
Mr Blair said the current crisis was a “regional” issue that “affects us all”.<\/p>\n
And he warned against believing that if we “wash our hands of it and walk away, then the problems will be solved”.<\/p>\n
“Even if you’d left Saddam in place in 2003, then when 2011 happened – and you had the Arab revolutions going through Tunisia and Libya and Yemen and Bahrain and Egypt and Syria – you would have still had a major problem in Iraq,” Mr Blair said.<\/p>\n
“Indeed, you can see what happens when you leave the dictator in place, as has happened with Assad now. The problems don’t go away.<\/p>\n
“So, one of the things I’m trying to say is – you know, we can rerun the debates about 2003 – and there are perfectly legitimate points on either side – but where we are now in 2014, we have to understand this is a regional problem, but it’s a problem that will affect us.”<\/p>\n
Syria is three years into a civil war in which tens of thousands of people have died and millions more have been displaced.<\/p>\n
In August last year, a chemical attack near the capital Damascus killed hundreds of people.<\/p>\n
In August, UK MPs rejected the idea of air strikes against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government to deter the use of chemical weapons.<\/p>\n