3.5 |
Development of UK strategy and options, September to November 2002
–
the
negotiation of resolution 1441
1024.
When it was
drawn to his attention that only one of the telegrams expressly
stated
the legal
view of the effect of the draft resolution, Mr Pattison
replied that:
“… legal
advice was incorporated into all the instructions we sent. We did
not
normally
practise making a distinction between legal and … policy
advice.”384
1025.
Sir Michael
Wood confirmed that:
“…
instructions were drafted by United Nations Department, cleared
with the FCO
Legal
Advisers and others, and, presumably, submitted to Ministers as
necessary.
They would
be conveyed to UKMIS by telegram, fax or on the phone. This
was
standard
practice for the drafting of SCRs.”385
1026.
Sir Jeremy
Greenstock told the Inquiry that he was not aware of
the
divergence
of view about whether the draft of resolution 1441 would authorise
the
use of
force without a further resolution.
1027.
Mr Straw,
Sir Jeremy Greenstock and Mr Pattison all referred to the fact
that
Mr Macleod
took the view that resolution 1441 authorised the use of force,
without
the need
for a further resolution.
1028.
There is no
contemporaneous written evidence of Mr Macleod’s
advice
during the
negotiation of resolution 1441.
1029.
Mr Macleod
told the Inquiry that he was not conscious of the
strength
of the FCO
Legal Advisers’ concerns until late November.
1030.
Asked whether
he was aware of the views, after its negotiation, of Sir
Michael
Wood and
other Foreign Office Legal Advisers on the effect of resolution
1441,
Sir Jeremy
Greenstock told the Inquiry:
“I was not
copied in on the minuting, for instance, between Michael Wood and
the
Secretary
of State, Jack Straw, at the time …
“I relied
on two things in New York, one was the telegrams of instruction,
signed
‘Straw’,
coming from London; and secondly, my legal adviser Iain Macleod’s
advice
1031.
Sir Jeremy
told the Inquiry that Mr Macleod’s advice:
“… was
different in substance and character from the legal advice coming
from
Elizabeth
Wilmshurst and Michael Wood to the Secretary of
State.”
384
Public
hearing, 31 January 2011, page 24.
385
Statement,
15 March 2011, pages 7‑8.
386
Private
hearing, 26 May 2010, page 14.
379