The UN inspector whose team found no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq tonight blasts Tony Blair over his decision to go to war.
On the ex-Prime Minister’s evidence to back joining US President George W Bush in the 2003 invasion, Mr Blix tells BBC1’s Panorama, Iraq: The Final Judgement: “Many people bring themselves to believe something they want to believe.”
Former Labour Minister Clare Short claims Mr Blair “made up his mind” to back Mr Bush, adding: “It was a manipulation by people determined to take military action.”
he retired expert accuses the former Prime Minister of “misrepresenting” evidence of Saddam Hussein’s chemical arsenal in the run-up to the 2003 invasion.
The scathing judgement comes five weeks before Iraq Inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot delivers his long-awaited findings.
A total of 179 British servicemen died in the conflict.
Mr Blair is braced for criticism when the £10million 2.6million-word report is published on July 6.
Mr Blix, who led the pre-invasion probe into Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction, takes the ex-Labour leader to task over the evidence used to justify backing US President George Bush’s march to war.
“What he said did not represent the reality,” he tells tonight’s Panorama, Iraq: The Final Judgement, on BBC1.
Damningly, he adds: “I never claimed that it was in bad faith; many people bring themselves to believe something that they want to believe.”
Mr Blix says the former PM “had a feeling that this was an evil regime and that it was a moral thing to do away with it”.
He goes on: “I don’t think that’s an evil thought. But I think it was a presumptuous thought that the UK and the US alone should do that.”
Former International Development Secretary Clare Short, who almost quit over the invasion, says Mr Blair had “made up his mind to be with Bush”.
She claims: “We were massaged and deceived to get us there when it was a manipulation of us - that is us, the Parliament, the Cabinet, British public opinion, American public opinion - by people who were determined to take military action from the beginning.”
Mr Blair has previously apologised for a dossier of intelligence claiming Iraq had WMD.
Despite detailed hunts after the regime had been toppled, no such weapons were found.
“Apologising for the intelligence being wrong is blaming the intelligence agencies,” says Ms Short.
“It’s a falsity because what was known - which was very little indeed - was then exaggerated way beyond to give this imminent threat, imminent threat to Britain.
“I mean that’s just dishonest. There’s no question about it.”
Ms Short also insists the decisions that created Mr Blair’s legacy in Iraq “were all his”, adding: “He thought it was the right thing to do.
“He’s got it on his conscience for as long as he’s alive and it’ll remain his legacy in the history books I’m afraid.”
A top military commander who led the Desert Rats into battle says there was not enough planning for what happened once the regime was overthrown.
Major General Graham Binns took the 7th Armoured Brigade into Basra. The Army had to pull out of Iraq’s second city in 2007.
But he admits tonight: “I don’t think we had a coherent plan in the longer term.”