Blair ignored warnings to go to Iraq war: Brit analyst

LONDON - Former British Premier Tony Blair had ignored warnings that there was no evidence of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) to support UK going to war in that country, an intelligence analyst has claimed.

Dr. Brian Jones was the head of the UK Defence Intelligence Staff’s nuclear, biological and chemical branch in 2002 when the infamous “45 minutes” dossier was published.

In an interview with The Sunday Express, Dr. Jones described the Whitehall meetings held to discuss the dossier.

“It was never a case of us saying there were categorically no WMDs, we just didn’t have the definitive intelligence,” Dr. Jones said.

“Every time we thought we reached that stage, something else would come up to cause just a glimmer of doubt.”

“I recorded minutes of the times when I expressed doubts about so-called evidence on weapons of mass destruction. Tony Blair gambled and he lost,” he added.

The decision to send 45,000 British troops to invade Iraq in 2003 was the most controversial of Blair’s 10-year stint.

The decision had provoked huge protests, divisions within his Labour Party and accusations that he had deceived the public over his reasons for war. (ANI)