Tony Blair is expected to defend the Iraq war by claiming the situation in the Middle East would have been worse if Saddam Hussein had been left in power, but he will not comment publicly until Sir John Chilcot finally publishes his report on 6 July, Reports suggest that the former British prime minister will respond to the Chilcot report on the legality of the 2003 Iraq invasion by arguing the Middle East state was devastated by Iran, Al-Qaeda and a powder keg of tribal animosity unleashed by Saddam’s removal. RT reports: According to sources close to Blair, whose views were reported in the Guardian, the former Middle East peace envoy will try to push responsibility onto parties other than himself by using counterfactual scenarios. Apart from suggesting the bloodshed was the fault of nefarious foreign powers, he is expected to raise the issue of what would have happened if Saddam Hussein had been left in power and insist the world is more secure because the Iraqi dictator was removed. He will also say although there were no weapons of mass destruction (WMD) found in Iraq, despite his claims at the time, the regime still had the capacity to produce [...]