Furious Mandela 'breathed fire' down the phone at British minister over Blair's decision to invade Iraq

Tony Blair and Nelson Mandela in November 2007, 20 months after a 'furious' Mr Mandela launched a tirade against the-then PM in a phone call to a Cabinet minister following the news that Britain was invading Iraq.

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.
The former South African president was so incensed that he was 'breathing fire' down the telephone line at the-then Welsh Secretary Peter Hain in protest at the 2003 military action.
Mr Mandela - renowned for this polite and patient demeanour - called his friend, a lifelong anti-Apartheid campaigner, when he heard the news.

Peter Hain reveals the details of Mr Mandela's angry phone call in his new book about the former South African president

He felt all the good work done by the Blair government in Africa and elsewhere was 'blown out of the water' by the decision to invade Iraq, Mr Hain said.
Mr Mandela's trenchant criticisms were made in a formal call to the Welsh Secretary's office, not in a private capacity, and Mr Blair was informed of what was said.
'He rang me up when I was a Cabinet minister in 2003, after the invasion,' Mr Hain recalled.
'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.
'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.

'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 '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 Blair does not mention the incident his memoirs, A Journey, published earlier this month. Instead, the former PM claimed he got on well with Mr Mandela because he 'treated him as a political leader, not as a saint'.
Mr Hain grew up in South Africa, where his anti-Apartheid campaigner parents knew Mr Mandela who he now describes as 'a friend and a hero'.
The revelation is revealed in Mr Hain's book, Mandela: The Story Of A Universal Hero, which includes a tribute from Mr Blair and is published today.