Blair defends decision to go to war in Iraq

FORMER British prime minister Tony Blair has said war with Iran cannot be ruled out as he defended the decision to invade Iraq.

In Ireland to promote his new book, Mr Blair was grilled last night about how he could justify the war when no weapons of mass destruction were found.

“In the end we took the decision for the reasons we gave,” he said. “[It is] a decision that is life and death. You don’t take it lightly. Political leaders take these decisions in good faith. We thought it was right. It was probably the single most difficult decision I ever took both in respect of Afghanistan and Iraq. I still think we have this fundamentalist, extremist threat which is based on a perversion of the religion of Islam that is still there and we have to deal with it.”