Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he has no regrets about helping bring former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in from the cold in 2004 and that Gaddafi’s mistake was his failure to carry out reforms at home.
Blair, now a Middle East envoy, reflected on his relationship with Gaddafi during an interview with Reuters Insider marking the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 al Qaeda attacks on U.S. cities. He said he could not be sure that Arab countries swept by popular revolts would move to democracy, citing a risk that hardline elements hostile to Western interests could triumph.
Gaddafi’s whereabouts are unknown after he was ousted two weeks ago by an armed revolt coupled with NATO bombing raids in which British warplanes played a leading part.
Asked if he regretted putting aside years of British hostility and holding out an olive branch to Gaddafi in 2004, Blair said: “No. I always say to people it is absolutely simple — the external policy of Libya changed.”
Libya had long been an international pariah before Blair flew to Tripoli in March 2004 to seal the country’s return to the world community with a historic handshake with Gaddafi.
He did so after Tripoli announced it would abandon efforts to acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, a step Blair said was “a great thing for the world”, and cooperate in the fight against terrorism.
Libya had earlier agreed to pay damages for a 1988 airliner bombing over Lockerbie, Scotland which killed 270 people.
“The trouble was in the end they weren’t prepared to reform internally … They were less of a threat to the outside world, but inside they were a threat to their people and then when the uprising happened, again, there was a big choice,” Blair said.
