WMDs IN IRAQ, ADMITS SPAIN'S AZNAR

Former prime minister Jose Maria Aznar has admitted there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, four years after he took Spain into the 2003 US-led invasion and helped topple Saddam Hussein.

าEveryone thought that there were weapons of mass destruction at the time of the invasion. There were none. I say it today,ำ said Aznar who ordered Spanish troops to help in the invasion despite the opposition of a large majority of Spaniards.

าMy problem is not to have known before, but at the same time no one knew,ำ said Aznar, who along with British Prime Minister Tony Blair was a chief ally of US President George W Bush over Iraq.

Washington had argued that the invasion of Iraq was needed to unseat Saddam because he possessed weapons of mass destruction, but the allegation was debunked after the invasion when none could be found.
The Western countries most hostile to American intervention in Iraq, notably France and Germany, had however expressed serious doubts about the existence of such an arsenal.

าMillions of Spaniards and people across the world knew that such weapons did not exist,ำ Diego Lopez Garrido, a spokesman for the ruling Socialist Party, said.

Aznarีs conservative Popular Party was voted out of power in a March 2004 general election that came three days after the train bombings in Madrid that killed 191 people.

The bombings were claimed by Islamic militants who said they had acted in part to protest the presence in Iraq of 1,300 Spanish troops sent by Aznar.
Spainีs Socialist Party won the election and quickly pulled the soldiers out of Iraq.