The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
255.
Mr Blair
had committed the UK to support the US in the fight
against
international
terrorism, but given the absence of evidence of any Iraqi
support
for Islamic
extremists, it is hard to see how that would have applied to US
policy
on Iraq.
256.
There was
no discussion of the nature of the strategy for dealing with
Iraq.
At that
stage, Mr Blair, Mr Straw and Mr Hoon were yet to receive
advice.
The UN and
Iraq held their first talks for more than a year on the possible
return of
weapons
inspectors, when Mr Annan met Mr Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign
Minister on
7 March
2002, before a meeting with experts.91
The talks
were described as exploratory and neither side predicted an
immediate
breakthrough.
They ended with agreement to a further round of talks in
April.
Mr Annan
told journalists that the talks were an effort to prevent a new
Middle East
war and
that he “didn’t want to see a widening conflict in the
region”.
The Iraqis
made no specific commitments to co-operate with UN resolutions
and
posed
19 questions about US/UK policies. The majority were about
clarification of
257.
The Cabinet
Office co-ordinated background paper on Iraq,
commissioned
on 19
February, was sent to Mr Blair on 8 March.
258.
The
existing policy of containment was described as “the least
worst
option”,
which had been “partially successful”.
259.
The paper
analysed two broad options, toughening the existing
containment
policy and regime change by military means, but it did not make
any
recommendations.
260.
The Cabinet
Office ‘Iraq: Options Paper’, commissioned by Sir David Manning
and
co-ordinated
by the Overseas and Defence Secretariat, was sent to Mr Blair by
Sir David
Manning on
8 March, as part of the collection of “background briefs that you
asked for”,
for the
meeting with President Bush in April.93
91
The
Guardian, 8 March
2002, Cabinet
concern grows over Blair’s tough talk on Iraq.
92
Minute Dodd
to Manning, 5 April 2002, ‘Iraq’.
93
Minute
Manning to Prime Minister, 8 March 2002, ‘Briefing for the
US’.
432