The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

• spelling out red lines in relation to Iraqi moves against Kuwait or the Kurds;

• setting out a “Contract for the Iraqi People (cf the FRY/Milosevic), offering a

vision for Iraq post-Saddam”. The activities of the Iraqi opposition should be

rolled into that;

• selling the OFF programme more convincingly as a humanitarian programme;

and

• dispensing with the southern NFZ patrols.

102.  Mr Cook also wanted to confront Secretary Powell on the scale of Iraq’s illegal

oil trade.

103.  In a manuscript comment on Mr Gooderham’s letter, Sir John Kerr, FCO

Permanent Under Secretary, suggested to Mr Westmacott that the policy outlined by

Mr Cook was unlikely to “survive in the cold light of a Washington morning”.59 It seemed

a recipe for infuriating allies in the Gulf (due to the proposal to dispense with the

southern NFZ patrols) and would mean abandoning hope of P5 unity (because the

‘Contract with the Iraqi People’ suggested that the target was no longer the suspension

of sanctions if Iraq stopped developing WMD, but Saddam Hussein himself). Sir John

continued: “I much preferred the policy in your [Mr Westmacott’s] note. I wonder if he

[Mr Cook] read it?”

104.  Sir William Patey told the Inquiry that the ‘Contract with the Iraqi People’ had been

developed in response to the US “drumbeats” for regime change in Iraq, and was:

“… our way in the Foreign Office of trying to signal that we didn’t think Saddam was

a good thing and it would be great if he went, but we didn’t have an explicit policy for

trying get rid of him.”60

105.  Mr Cook and Secretary Powell met on 6 February.61 The British Embassy

Washington reported that they had discussed the need to regain the initiative on Iraq

through a radical new approach to secure common objectives and to get the public

emphasis back on Iraq’s WMD, including by moving from a sanctions debate to an arms

control debate and narrowing the definition of dual-use items.

106.  Mr Cook suggested working on a ‘Contract with the Iraqi People’ and that: “In

return, we must bring smuggling under control, in particular by bringing the Turkish trade

within Oil-for-Food.” Mr Cook pointed out that the US would have to “reduce drastically”

the number of holds it had placed on Iraqi contracts.

59  Manuscript comment Kerr on Letter Gooderham to Westmacott, 5 February 2001, ‘Iraq: Policy Review:

Foreign Secretary’s Visit’.

60  Public hearing, 24 November 2009, page 27.

61  Telegram 126 Washington to FCO London, 7 February 2001, ‘Foreign Secretary’s Meeting with Colin

Powell: Iraq’.

210