London: The world will face “terrible” consequences over many years to come for failing to intervene in Syria, Tony Blair has said.
The former prime minister, who serves as the envoy for the Middle East quartet of the UN, US, EU and Russia, said the failure to confront President Bashar Al Assad would have ramifications far beyond the region.
Speaking on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 on Monday, Blair said: “We have not intervened in Syria. The consequences are, in my view, terrible and will be a huge problem not just for the Middle East region but for us in the years to come.”
Blair advocated military action against the Al Assad regime after a sarin attack on the Gouta district near Damascus last August killed between 350 and 1,400 people. His stance placed him on the same side as David Cameron, who wanted to join the US in launching an attack on the Assad regime, but highlighted differences with Ed Miliband, who was highly sceptical of military intervention.
Blair, who was speaking on the Today programme to mark the 20th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, made his remarks about the failure to take action in Syria when asked if it might still be right to take military action without domestic support.
“You’d certainly have to say that this is a dimension you have to be aware of politically,” the former prime minister said.
Blair added: “But in my view it doesn’t invalidate the necessity to intervene. What you have got to compare is the fact and the consequences of intervention with the fact and the consequences of non-intervention.”
The former prime minister, who acknowledged that many people did not want a repeat of the Iraq invasion elsewhere in the world, launched a strong defence of his decision to remove Saddam Hussain in 2003.
“Supposing you had left Saddam. I think it is reasonably arguable, surely, that you would have had the so-called Arab spring come to Iraq. If it had come to Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, it was going to come to Iraq and you would be facing what you are facing in Syria now in Iraq. But you can debate these issues forever. In the end what we know now and we can see this very clearly from Libya is that when you remove the dictatorship, that is the beginning not the end.”