Blair affirms belief in Saddam’s weapons

BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday underlined his belief that deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction amid growing scepticism about the coalition’s ability to prove their existence.

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld claimed last night the weapons may have been destroyed by the Iraqis before the war broke out.

But Mr Blair, speaking to journalists on board his chartered aircraft as he headed for Kuwait, insisted: "I have said throughout and I just repeat to you, I have absolutely no doubt at all about the existence of weapons of mass destruction.

"And rather than speculating, let's just wait until we get the full report back from our people who are interviewing the Iraqi scientists," he said.

"We have already found two trailers that both our and the American security services believe were used for the manufacture of chemical and biological weapons."

Mr Blair speaking at the start of a seven-day marathon diplomatic mission that will also take in Iraq, Poland, Russia and France indicated that uncovering weapons of mass destruction was not the coalition's priority.

"Our priorities in Iraq at the moment are less to do with finding weapons of mass destruction, although that's obviously what a team is charged with doing," said Mr Blair.

He added: "The more immediate priorities are to do with humanitarian tasks and reconstruction." The US and Britain repeatedly cited the need to combat the threat posed by Saddam's alleged weapons programmes as the primary justification for launching military action.

But Mr Rumsfeld said: "It is also possible they (the Iraqis) decided they would destroy them (weapons of mass destruction) prior to a conflict.

"We don't know what happened (to Iraq's banned weapons)."

Robin Cook, a former British Foreign Secretary,who quit as Britain's Leader of the House of Commons in protest before the war, said Mr Rumsfeld's comments vindicated his own stance.

Mr Cook, speaking on BBC Radio 4's The World at One, said of Mr Rumsfeld's speech:

"That does not add up.

"If Donald Rumsfeld is now admitting the weapons are not there, the truth is the weapons probably haven't been there for quite a long time."

Mr Cook argued: "It matters immensely because the basis on which the war was sold to the British House of Commons, to the British people, was that Saddam represented a serious threat.

"It is plain he did not have that capacity to threaten us, possibly did not have the capacity to threaten even his neighbours and that is profoundly important," he said.

"We were, after all, told that those who opposed the resolution that would provide the basis for military action were in the wrong.

"Perhaps we should now admit they were in the right."

Other opponents of war in Iraq also seized on Mr Rumsfeld's speech.