Mandela's 'fire-breathing' fury at Blair over Iraq invasion revealed

Published on Sunday 12 September 2010 15:42

Nelson Mandela felt so betrayed by Tony Blair's decision to join the US-led invasion of Iraq that he launched a fiery tirade against him in a phone call to a Cabinet minister, it emerged today.

Peter Hain, a lifelong anti-Apartheid campaigner who knows the former South African president well, said Mr Mandela was "breathing fire" down the line in protest at the 2003 military action.

He felt all the good work done by Mr Blair's government in Africa and elsewhere was "blown out of the water", Mr Hain said of the call - revealed in his new biography of Mr Mandela.

The trenchant criticisms were made in a formal call to the minister's office, not in a private capacity, and Mr Blair was informed of what had been said, Mr Hain said.

"He rang me up when I was a Cabinet minister in 2003, after the invasion," he said.

"He said: 'A big mistake Peter, a very big mistake. It is wrong. Why is Tony doing this after all his support for Africa? This will cause huge damage internationally'.

"I had never heard Nelson Mandela so angry and frustrated.

"He clearly felt very, very strongly that the decision that the prime minister had taken - and that I as a member of the Cabinet had been party to - was fundamentally wrong and he told me it would destroy all the good things that Tony Blair and we, as a government, had done in progressive policy terms across the world.

"He was always full of praise for the way our government had trebled the overseas aid and development budget for Africa," Mr Hain said - as well as interventions in Sierra Leone and Bosnia and work to secure the ban on landmines.

"He just felt that all of this had been completely blown out of the water by the Iraq invasion.

"I know Nelson Mandela quite well. He was virtually breathing fire down the phone on this, and feeling a sense of betrayal. It was quite striking."

Mr Hain said he told Mr Mandela that he respected his feelings but that the prime minister had "acted out of conviction".

"I think I said we would simply have to judge it historically whether it was the right decision.

"But he was adamant that we could not wait for history."

Mr Hain grew up in South Africa, where his anti-Apartheid campaigner parents knew Mr Mandela, whom he now describes as "a friend and a hero".

• Mandela: The Story of a Universal Hero, which includes a tribute from Mr Blair, is published today in hardback by Spruce and costs 12.99.