The Report of the Iraq Inquiry

negotiations … was therefore that it should be self contained, and not legally contingent

on a second resolution.”330

929. Mr Straw told the Inquiry that his view “was that there was an overwhelming

argument that 1441 required a second stage but not a second resolution”.331

930. Mr Straw told the Inquiry:

“I believed that we were intent on negotiating a self‑contained resolution … The

Americans would never agree to a resolution that was not self‑contained. I would

say everybody else we were negotiating with took the same view. As Jeremy

Greenstock has pointed out, if we had been ready to accept a resolution which

simply required another resolution, we would have got that in a week.”332

931. In his memoir, Mr Straw described the negotiation of resolution 1441 as “a great

team effort”. The UK and US teams had:

“… argued so intensely over every last detail because everyone knew what was

riding on it.”333

932. Mr Straw wrote that he had felt a “great sense of relief and achievement “about

the outcome of the resolution; it was “comprehensive”, it was “mandatory, based

on Chapter VII of the UN Charter” and, “crucially it recognised ‘the threat Iraq’s

non‑compliance … poses to international peace and security’”.334

933. Lord Goldsmith’s officials were involved in the initial formulation of

proposals for a resolution, but he was not formally asked for his views until

24 September, after a draft had been agreed with the US.

934. Lord Goldsmith was sent a copy of the FCO advice to No.10 of 27 August, setting

out possible elements for a new resolution.335

935. In his statement for the Inquiry, Lord Goldsmith wrote that the letter of 27 August:

“… attached a rudimentary outline of the terms of a possible resolution. I was

shown the letter but I am sure I would have assumed that my advice was not

required in relation to that text but that instead it would be sought on a more

developed draft …”336

330 Statement, January 2010, page 7.

331 Public hearing, 8 February 2010, page 13.

332 Public hearing, 2 February 2011, page 67.

333 Straw J. Last Man Standing: Memoirs of a Political Survivor. Macmillan, 2012.

334 Straw J. Last Man Standing: Memoirs of a Political Survivor. Macmillan, 2012.

335 Letter McDonald to Manning, 27 August 2002, ‘Iraq: Ultimatum’.

336 Statement, 4 January 2011, paragraph 1.15.

366