3.3 |
Development of UK strategy and options,
April to July 2002
25.
In an
interview on BBC Breakfast
with Frost on 21 April,
primarily about the Budget,
Mr David
Frost asked Mr Blair how close action was on Iraq.9
Mr Blair
replied:
“We have
not taken any decisions on Iraq at all … we have identified weapons
of
mass
destruction as a crucial issue … Saddam Hussein is a threat, the
world would
be better
off without Saddam Hussein in power, but … we will not take
decision ’til
we have
looked at all the options …”
26.
Mr Blair added
that Saddam Hussein should allow the weapons inspectors to
return.
That was
what the United Nations had told him to do. Saddam Hussein was in
breach
of UN
resolutions and needed to fulfil those obligations.
27.
Asked whether
there were differences between him and Mr Gordon
Brown,
Chancellor
of the Exchequer, Mr Blair said:
“… all we
have decided … is that weapons of mass destruction have to be dealt
with
… how we
deal with it, however, is an open question.”
28.
Mr Blair’s
comments on Iraq’s WMD capability and the timetable for the
publication
of the
“dossier” on those capabilities are set out in Section
4.1.
29.
Mr Jack
Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was advised that there was
little
prospect of
agreement in the Security Council to any language demanding
the
return of
weapons inspectors.
30.
A
resolution implementing the “smart sanctions” regime was agreed
on
14 May, but
compromises were necessary to secure Russian support and
tougher
measures on
tackling cross border smuggling were not included.
31.
Since the
adoption of resolution 1382 in November 2001, the UK had
continued
to pursue
agreement on a new resolution introducing a smart sanctions
regime.
32.
Following Mr
Blair’s discussions with President Bush at Crawford, Mr Straw
advised
Mr Blair on
9 April that the shift in focus to the re-admission of weapons
inspectors drew
the UK
“inexorably into the question of cover in international law” for
military action in the
event that,
as Mr Straw suspected, Iraq failed to comply (see Section
3.2).10
33.
Mr Charles
Gray, Head of the FCO Middle East Department, wrote that Mr
Straw
asked for
advice on:
•
what,
assuming a resolution authorising military action against Iraq
is
unachievable,
we might hope to get in the Security Council to sustain
the
9
BBC
News, 21 April
2002, BBC
Breakfast with Frost Interview: Prime Minister Tony
Blair.
10
Minute
Straw to Prime Minister, 9 April 2002, ‘Your Commons
Statement’.
9