How Tony Blair prevented Muammar Gaddafi's chemical weapons from falling into Islamic State's hands

Tony Blair with Colonel Gaddafi in 2007

London: Former British prime minister Tony Blair has indicated that he had tried to save Libyan dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi from getting killed.

Blair told UK MPs during a grilling session that he had thrice tried to persuade Gaddafi to leave Libya in the wake of the regime's imminent collapse in 2011.

Blair, as ex-PM, had spoken to Gaddafi on phone before he was killed.

But the ex-PM denied that he wanted to save the Libyan leader.

“I was not trying to save Gaddafi. I told him the bloodshed had to stop and you have to leave the country,” Daily Mail quoted Blair as telling the MPs.

The MPs today questioned the former Labour party leader on the so-called 2004 'deal in the desert' as part of which the dictator agreed to give up his country's chemical weapons.

Blair said if Gaddafi had not handed over his chemical weapons, the same would have been in Islamic State's hands today.