3.2 |
Development of UK strategy and options, January to April 2002 –
“axis of evil” to Crawford
489.
In late
March 2002, Lord Goldsmith, Attorney General, informed Mr Hoon
and
Mr Straw
that there could be considerable difficulties in justifying the use
of force
without
further action by the Security Council.
490.
Lord
Goldsmith was seeking to avoid Ministers making
apparently
authoritative
statements before he had been asked to give his views.
491.
On 24 March,
both Mr Straw and Mr Hoon were interviewed on television
and
asked
questions about the legal basis for any military action against
Iraq.
492.
In response to
a question about whether international law provided a mandate
to
attack Iraq
during an interview on Breakfast
with Frost on 24
March, Mr Straw replied:
“… we have
never been involved in any military action in our history since
the
establishment
of the United Nations without the backing of international law
and
we’re not
going to be …
…
“We don’t
have a mandate to invade Iraq now, no … what we need to do however
is
to ensure
the full compliance by Iraq … with these United Nations obligations
… if
Iraq
refuses to comply … then the position in international law may very
well change
… Nobody
wants military action … at all and the way out lies very clearly in
Saddam
Hussein’s
hands.
…
“… But, on
the fundamental issue, do you need to ensure that any action
that
is taken is
justified in international law, there can only be one answer and
that
493.
Later the same
day, in an interview by Mr Jonathan Dimbleby on ITV
about
the
deployment
of 1,700 Royal Marines to Afghanistan, Mr Hoon was asked whether,
if
Saddam
Hussein did not allow weapons inspectors in or only allowed them in
on terms
which the
US and UK found unacceptable, the UK would insist on having a
mandate
from the
United Nations Security Council or were the existing resolutions
enough to
validate
military action.178
Mr Hoon
replied: “In principle they would be, not least
because
those
weapons of mass destruction might well be capable of posing a
threat to the
United
Kingdom in which case we will be entitled to act in self
defence.”
494.
Asked whether
Ms Clare Short, the International Development Secretary,
was
correct to
say that it was not tolerable to act militarily against Saddam
Hussein without
a UN
mandate, Mr Hoon replied: “well what I am saying is that legally we
would be
perfectly
entitled to use force without a specific United Nations
resolution”.
177
BBC
Breakfast with Frost, 24 March
2002.
178
Jonathan
Dimbleby ITV, 24 March
2002.
475