Chirac to Blair: “Leo will not thank you if you take Britain into war.“
Revealed in BBC documentary: Blair ignored Chirac’s warning of Iraq ‘disaster’
A top aide to Tony Blair said the British PM ignored French President Jacques Chirac’s warnings that invading Iraq would have “disastrous” consequences.
Stephen Wall, formerly Blair’s chief policy advisor, said Blair deliberately misrepresented France’s opposition to invading Iraq to justify going ahead with the operation.
The comments were made in “A Man With A Mission“, the second instalment in the three-part BBC television documentary “Blair: The Inside Story“.
According to Wall, at a crunch European Union summit in October 2002, Chirac urged caution and even mentioned Blair’s then-infant son, saying: “Leo will not thank you if you take Britain into war.”
Chirac vehemently argued that while Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein “could be overthrown, the subsequent consequences would be disastrous,” Wall said.
“Tony Blair never paid any attention to what Chirac said. He’d kind of come out rolling his eyes and say: ‘Oh dear, dear old Jacques, he doesn’t get it, does he?‘”
Blair decided to blame Chirac for the deadlock that followed a breakdown of diplomatic efforts to get a second UN Security Council resolution which could have put off an invasion, Wall said.
And the rest, as they say, is history…
