U.K. participated in a NATO-led 2011 military intervention that led to Gadhafi's ouster.
London: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair says he telephoned Moammar Gadhafi and tried to persuade him to leave Libya as the Arab Spring erupted in 2011.
Blair said on Friday that he was not trying to "save" the Libyan dictator but "to get him out of the situation so that a peaceful transition could take place."
Blair, prime minister from 1997 to 2007, was instrumental in ending Gadhafi's international isolation in return for giving up nuclear and chemical arms programs.
The U.K. participated in a NATO-led 2011 military intervention that led to Gadhafi's ouster. Libya has since descended into chaos, with Islamic State group-linked militants gaining strength.
Blair told Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee that without the earlier rapprochement there was a risk IS in Libya would now have access to chemical weapons.
