The Times, 9 September 2011

Daily Mirror, 9 September 2011

(Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair gives evidence before the Iraq Inquiry, 29 January 2010)

The Independent, 30 January 2010

Daily Mirror, 30 January 2010

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Tony Blair backs regime change in Iran and Syria and warns the West of a long and hard struggle to defeat terrorism and the flawed ideology that supports it.

 

The former [British] Prime Minister, in an interview with The Times to mark the tenth anniversary of 9/11, […] suggests that the West must be ready to use force against Iran if it pursues its nuclear ambitions.

 

“Regime change in Tehran would immediately make me significantly more optimistic about the whole of the region […] If Iran were to acquire nuclear weapons capability it would destabilise the region very, very badly. They continue to support groups that are engaged with terrorism and the forces of reaction. In Iraq one of the main problems has been the continued intervention of Iran and likewise in Afghanistan.”

“I believe discussion about the Iraq war has clouded the debate about promoting democracy around the world. I understand the doubts about Iraq and Afghanistan, and the deep concerns at the mistakes made. But my plea is that we do not let divisions over those conflicts obscure our national interest, never mind our moral impulse, in supporting movements for democracy […]

In the 1990’s […] the left seemed conflicted between the desirability of the goal and its qualms about the use of military means. In fact, the goal of spreading democracy should be a great progressive project; the means need to combine soft and hard power.”