3.5 |
Development of UK strategy and options, September to November 2002
–
the
negotiation of resolution 1441
345.
Dr Blix
told the Security Council on 3 October that, although there was
no
legal need
for a new resolution to authorise the return of inspectors, it
would be
better, if
there was going to be a new resolution, for them to wait to return
to Iraq
until that
was in place.
346.
Dr Blix
and Dr Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General of the IAEA, held
separate
talks with
Iraqi officials about the practical arrangements for inspections in
Vienna on
30 September
and 1 October.
347.
Some officials
had identified the practicalities of the timetable for preparing
and
conducting
inspections as “the most difficult area”.115
348.
The UK Mission
to the UN in Vienna reported that Dr Blix thought the talks
had
gone well
in most respects, including Iraq’s agreement to drop the 1996
arrangements
for visits
to sensitive sites.116
The main
outstanding issues were:
•
arrangements
for the safety of inspection flights in the No‑Fly
Zones;
•
interviews,
where the Iraqis were still insisting on the presence of an Iraqi
official
and the
right to film; and
•
UNMOVIC use
of U2 (surveillance) flights.
Access to
Presidential sites had not been addressed.
349.
Mr Campbell
wrote that Dr Blix:
“… seemed
to be making progress and looked like he was trying to do a deal
which
would not
necessarily include palaces. It wasn’t good enough for the US but
the UN
were
pushing it and suggested that we didn’t need another UNSCR. Powell
was
very hard
line that there could be no new inspections without a new
UNSCR.”117
350.
The British
Embassy Washington reported that Secretary Powell had
responded
swiftly to
the talks with an impromptu press conference warning that UNMOVIC
should
not return
to Iraq until a new resolution had been adopted; and that the US
preference
was for a
single resolution.118
351.
The Embassy
also reported that:
•
The US
press was reporting a claim by Secretary Rumsfeld that the
No‑Fly
Zones were
the air component of the inspections regime under
resolution 687.
115
Minute
Pattison to FCO [junior official], 12 September 2002, ‘Iraq: Draft
Resolution’.
116
Telegram 95
UKMIS Vienna to FCO London, 2 October 2002, ‘Iraq: Return of
Inspectors’.
117
Campbell A
& Hagerty B. The
Alastair Campbell Diaries. Volume 4. The Burden of Power:
Countdown
to Iraq.
Hutchinson,
2012.
118
Telegram
1264 Washington to FCO London, 1 October 2002, ‘US/Iraq: 1
October’.
261