'Blair wanted peaceful Iraq result'
Tony Blair hoped right until the eve of the invasion of Iraq that the crisis over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction could be resolved peacefully, Alastair Campbell has said.
Giving evidence to the Iraq inquiry, the former No 10 "spin doctor" said Mr Blair's "instinct" had always been that Britain should join the Americans if it came to military action.
However, he insisted that right up to the Commons vote on March 18 2003, Mr Blair had held out the hope Saddam could be disarmed through the United Nations.
"His instinct was that we should be with the Americans. Does that mean that you tailor your policy to suit theirs? No," Mr Campbell said.
"The Prime Minister made clear throughout this was disarmament of Saddam Hussein through the United Nations."
Mr Campbell strongly refuted earlier evidence to the inquiry by Sir Christopher Meyer, Britain's former ambassador to Washington, about Mr Blair's meeting with George Bush at the President's Texas ranch at Crawford in April 2002.
"If you are saying to me 'Do I agree with Christopher Meyer's analysis that at Crawford the Prime Minister shifted his position from one of containment and disarmament through the UN to one of regime change?' I don't," he said.
"I don't accept this analysis that at Crawford there was a fundamental shift in approach and policy by the Prime Minister."
Mr Campbell said there was a "difference in emphasis" between Britain and America over the need for United Nations backing for the Iraq conflict. "We were keen all the time to emphasise the importance of the UN," he said. "The American attitude is somewhat lukewarm to the UN, to put it mildly."
He said the issue of WMD was at the heart of the conflict planning. "Why did the issue of WMD become so central?" he said. "Because that was what gave rise to the fear and sense of credible threat to regional stability."
