Former British prime minister Tony Blair was committed to joining the US in the Iraq war a year before the 2003 invasion, documents obtained by a Sunday newspaper suggested.
The revelations focus on a memo allegedly written by former US secretary of state Colin Powell on March 28, 2002 to then-US president George W. Bush a week before the US leader’s meeting with Blair at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.
“On Iraq, Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary,” the Mail on Sunday said in a report on its Web site, citing a document written by Powell.
Photo: Reuters
“He is convinced on two points: the threat is real; and success against Saddam will yield more regional success,” Powell said, referring to then-Iraqi president Saddam Hussein, who was eventually ousted in the 2003 US-led invasion.
The Mail on Sunday said that the memo and other sensitive documents were part of a batch of secret e-mails held on the private server of Democratic US presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, which US courts have forced her to reveal.
A separate quote from Powell assured Bush “the UK will follow our lead in the Middle East,” while other statements suggest Blair’s willingness to present “strategic, tactical and public affairs lines” to boost support among the public for the Iraq war.
Blair, who served as prime minister from 1997 to 2007, has repeatedly denied rushing to war.
Under his leadership, Britain made the second-biggest troop contribution to the Iraq invasion, and British forces were stationed in the nation until 2011.
The decision to back the invasion is now deeply unpopular in Britain and has haunted the Labour Party ever since.
A controversial inquiry by former civil servant John Chilcot into the decisions leading up to the war was expected to take a year to report, but is still not public despite being announced by the government six years ago.
“This story is nothing new. The memo is consistent with what Mr Blair was saying publicly at the time and with Mr Blair’s evidence given to the Chilcot Inquiry,” a spokesperson for Blair’s office said.
The US government has signed defense cooperation agreements with Japan and the Philippines to boost the deterrence capabilities of countries in the first island chain, a report by the National Security Bureau (NSB) showed. The main countries on the first island chain include the two nations and Taiwan. The bureau is to present the report at a meeting of the legislature’s Foreign Affairs and National Defense Committee tomorrow. The US military has deployed Typhon missile systems to Japan’s Yamaguchi Prefecture and Zambales province in the Philippines during their joint military exercises. It has also installed NMESIS anti-ship systems in Japan’s Okinawa
‘WIN-WIN’: The Philippines, and central and eastern European countries are important potential drone cooperation partners, Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung said Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) in an interview published yesterday confirmed that there are joint ventures between Taiwan and Poland in the drone industry. Lin made the remark in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper). The government-backed Taiwan Excellence Drone International Business Opportunities Alliance and the Polish Chamber of Unmanned Systems on Wednesday last week signed a memorandum of understanding in Poland to develop a “non-China” supply chain for drones and work together on key technologies. Asked if Taiwan prioritized Poland among central and eastern European countries in drone collaboration, Lin
The Chien Feng IV (勁蜂, Mighty Hornet) loitering munition is on track to enter flight tests next month in connection with potential adoption by Taiwanese and US armed forces, a government source said yesterday. The kamikaze drone, which boasts a range of 1,000km, debuted at the Taipei Aerospace and Defense Technology Exhibition in September, the official said on condition of anonymity. The Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology and US-based Kratos Defense jointly developed the platform by leveraging the engine and airframe of the latter’s MQM-178 Firejet target drone, they said. The uncrewed aerial vehicle is designed to utilize an artificial intelligence computer
Renewed border fighting between Thailand and Cambodia showed no signs of abating yesterday, leaving hundreds of thousands of displaced people in both countries living in strained conditions as more flooded into temporary shelters. Reporters on the Thai side of the border heard sounds of outgoing, indirect fire yesterday. About 400,000 people have been evacuated from affected areas in Thailand and about 700 schools closed while fighting was ongoing in four border provinces, said Thai Rear Admiral Surasant Kongsiri, a spokesman for the military. Cambodia evacuated more than 127,000 villagers and closed hundreds of schools, the Thai Ministry of Defense said. Thailand’s military announced that
RSS