Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has apologized for aspects of the Iraq war in an upcoming television interview, British media reported Sunday. His comments, in a yet-to-be-aired interview CNN that has been reported by the Mail on Sunday, have prompted allegations of an attempted "spin" ahead of the release of Britain's Iraq war probe – the Chilcot Inquiry. In the interview, Blair allegedly expressed regret over the failure to adequately plan for the aftermath of the war in 2003, which saw the toppling of Saddam Hussein. He also reportedly conceded that the Iraq war was partly to blame for the rise of ISIS. Blair also discussed the false intelligence suggesting the country had weapons of mass destruction, which was used to justify the invasion. "I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong ... I also apologize for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime," Blair was quoted by the Mail on Sunday as saying. Blair was asked by CNN host Fareed Zakaria if the war was "the principal cause" of the rise of ISIS, he was reported to have said: 'I think there are elements of truth in that." "Of course you can't say those of us who removed Saddam in 2003 bear no responsibility for the situation in 2015," he added. But according to the UK's ITV News. Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister for Scotland has accused Blair of participating in a "spin operation" to prepare the ground for criticisms that may surface from the Chilcot Inquiry.
