Tony Blair hit out on Sunday at critics who linked the 2003 invasion of Iraq with the current violence in the country, blaming instead the West's failure to act in Syria. The former prime minister, who led Britain into the US-led war to remove Saddam Hussein and is now a diplomatic envoy in the Middle East, also criticised the sectarianism of the government in Baghdad.
In a long article published on his website, Blair said arguments that there would be no crisis in the region if the Iraqi dictator had remained in power were "bizarre".