Iraq inquiry: Blair deal on regime change?
Updated on 26 November 2009
Britain's former ambassador to Washington, Sir Christopher Meyer, tells the Iraq inquiry he was excluded from talks between Tony Blair and George Bush in April 2002.
Sir Christopher painted a vivid picture of Tony Blair and George Bush almost a year before the invasion, signing in blood their plan for regime change.
But he admitted it was a scene he had not actually witnessed, having been excluded from the leaders' talks at George Bush's Crawford ranch in Texas.
He told the inquiry what has long been suspected, as discussions on regime change dominated the Iraq inquiry once again this morning.
Addressing the possibility that Tony Blair and George Bush discussed regime change during a meeting at the former US president's Texas ranch in 2002, Sir Christopher Meyer told the inquiry: "To this day I’m not entirely clear what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch."
The day after the meeting, Tony Blair told a press conference: "If necessary, the action should be military. And again, if necessary and justified, it should involve regime change."
Sir Christopher went on to talk about allegation that Tony Blair had made a political decision to back the US and the need to find evidence to justify that decision.
"We found ourselves scrabbling for the smoking gun,” he said, "which was another way of saying 'It's not that Saddam has to prove he’s innocent – we’ve now bloody well got to try and prove he's guilty."
"And we've never - we, the Americans, British – have never really recovered from that because, of course, there was no smoking gun."
