Blair: Force may be necessary against Iran
Tony Blair today issued a stark warning that the West must be prepared to use force if necessary to deal with the “looming challenge” of Iran.
Appearing before the Iraq Inquiry, the former prime minister said that the West needed to end its “wretched posture of apology” towards the regime in Tehran.
He said the Iranians would remain a destabilising force in the region – while continuing to develop their nuclear programme – unless they were confronted with the “requisite determination”.
“This is a looming and coming challenge. I am out in the region the whole time, I see the impact and influence of Iran everywhere. It is negative, destabilising, it is supportive of terrorist groups, it is doing everything it can to impede progress in the Middle East process,” he said.
“This is not because we have done something. At some point – and I say this to you with all the passion I possibly can – the West has got to get out of this wretched posture of apology for believing that we are responsible for what the Iranians are doing, or what these extremists are doing.
“We are not. The fact is that they are doing it because they disagree fundamentally with our way of life and they will carry on doing it unless they are met by the requisite determination and if necessary force.”
Mr Blair said US President Barack Obama’s attempts to extend the hand of partnership to the Iranians had failed to induce any change in behaviour.
“What is the response he gets? They carry on with the terrorism, they carry on with the destabilisation, they carry on with the nuclear weapons programme. At some point we have got to get our head out of the sand and understand they are going to carry on with this,” he said.
Mr Blair dismissed criticisms that the invasion of Iraq by US and British forces had strengthened the hand of the Iranians. He said it was the former policy of the West to promote Saddam Hussein as a bulwark against Iran that had failed.
“The answer to Iran is not Saddam. That was the policy in the 1980s and all we did was create a monster we couldn’t control.”
