Gorbachev: Iraq war Blair's big mistake

Wed, 02 May 2007 06:21:52 Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev has said that Tony Blair's decision to send British troops to Iraq has turned out as his big mistake.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News he said: "I think that he regrets and others regret what happened (after attacking Iraq)."

"It certainly was a mistake. On the day when hostilities started against Iraq, I said it was a major policy mistake.

"It turned out to be an even bigger mistake than I had thought."

"I don't know who actually played a bigger role, whether the information that Americans received from you or their own intelligence information or they invented the intelligence where there was none", he was quoted as saying.

"But ultimately they did not find weapons of mass destruction and they got a lot of bloodshed."

Gorbachev who helped bring an end to the Cold War and the nuclear arms race also condemned America's plan to build a missile shield in Poland.

He said: "(In Russia) we have been trying to avoid the arms race. But right in front of us, the United States has now a bigger defence budget than it was during the height of the cold war. What's happening?

"Why is that? And we cannot fully explain it by just the need to fight terrorism; you cannot fight terrorism with nuclear warheads. That is going too far.

"They want democracy in their own country but what about democracy in international affairs? There is no democracy; there is the rule of the fist instead."

Mr. Gorbachev is chairman of Green Cross International, an environmental version of the Red Cross.