The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

the UN question. And how did we do it without provoking uproar across the Middle

East? That was the Arab question.”

449. The Inquiry asked Mr Blair to address in a written statement how the US

Administration would have interpreted the opening sentence of his Note and whether

that corresponded with the degree of the commitment he wanted to give.171

450. Mr Blair did not respond directly. In the context of a section of his statement

addressing the fact that the US had no need of a further UN resolution before acting,

Mr Blair wrote that the Note had:

“… set out … the strong reason why, politically, I thought a UN resolution was

necessary, primarily to build a broad coalition against Saddam and to show we

were prepared to disarm him peacefully.”172

451. Mr Blair also wrote:

“I could not and did not offer some kind of ‘blank cheque’ in how we accomplished

our shared objectives.”173

452. Asked subsequently to tell the Inquiry what was in the Note, Mr Blair said that

he thought he had amended the opening sentence and commented: “Frankly I think

he [Sir David Manning] would have preferred me not to have given any undertaking

at all.”174

453. Mr Blair stated:

“What I was saying to President Bush was very clear and simple. It is: You can count

on us. We are going to be with you in tackling this, but here are the difficulties.”

454. The Note had been “about all the issues and difficulties”. In Mr Blair’s view, there

was “a very clear and simple decision to take”. America was “going to tackle this issue”.

His first question for President Bush was “do we want it to be a coalition?” His “belief

was it was extremely important for the international community to hold together at this

point”. He did not see 11 September “as an attack on America”. It was “an attack on us

… the West”.175

455. Mr Blair added:

“America could do it unilaterally. Of course they could, but I would prefer them to do

it multilaterally. So in a sense what I was saying to America was … ‘Whatever the

political heat, if I think this is the right thing to do I am going to be with you. I am not

171 Inquiry request for a written statement, 13 December 2010, Qs 2e and 2f, page 1.

172 Statement, 14 January 2011, page 5.

173 Statement, 14 January 2011, page 4.

174 Public hearing, 21 January 2011, page 47.

175 Public hearing, 21 January 2011, pages 47-48.

78