British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday insisted that there was "no planning" under way for an attack on Iran, while defending his record on Iraq after announcing a major troop withdrawal.
Asked in a BBC radio interview whether an attack against Iran was inconceivable, he said that nobody was preparing for military action and that he did not think such a course would be right.
"You can't absolutely predict every set of circumstances that comes about but sitting here now talking to you, I can tell you Iran is not Iraq," he said.
"There is, as far as I know, no planning going on to make an attack on Iran and people are pursuing a diplomatic and political solution for a good reason -- that it is the only solution that anyone can think of as viable and sensible," Blair added.
He added that he knew of "nobody" in Washington who was planning for a military attack and denied that US President George W. Bush's administration was encouraging Israel to strike.
But Blair also seemed to qualify his remarks by saying: "I personally think that you will never have a situation where you simply say there are no set of circumstances in which you could ever conceive of anything."
On Wednesday, Blair announced that the number of British troops in Iraq would be cut by 1,600 to 5,500 in the next couple of months.
Asked if he would be prepared to send support troops in Iraq back to frontline duties if need be, the prime minister confirmed that this was possible, though he did not anticipate it would be necessary.
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