3.6 |
Development of UK strategy and options, November 2002 to January
2003
449.
Mr Hoon
did not respond to an observation from Mr Bernard Jenkin
(Conservative)
that “It
now seems unlikely that the UN inspectors will find any weapons of
mass
destruction
in Iraq. Saddam Hussein has had too much time to conceal them
and
to destroy
the evidence.”
450.
Asked by
Mr James Paice (Conservative) about the “huge task to convince
the
British
people that they are doing the right thing”, Mr Hoon replied
that it was:
“… not
possible to secure overwhelming public support for military action
before
the
explanation for that military action has been given and, therefore,
before the
justification
for that military action has been identified. We have not yet
reached that
point in
the process, and unless and until we do I accept that we cannot
explain the
justification
for military action.”
451.
Other points
made by Mr Hoon in response to questions
included:
•
The Iraqi
declaration was “seriously short on detail and lacks in particular
any
significant
reference” to the conclusions reached by UNSCOM in
1999.
•
If Saddam
Hussein left Iraq, there “would be a different regime as far as
the
international
community was concerned”. The removal of weapons of
mass
destruction
from the control of the regime would be a
“prerequisite”.
•
Military
action would be necessary “because every other avenue has
been
exhausted”
and the opportunities offered by resolution 1441 had been
“spurned
by the
Government in Iraq”.
•
There was
no “inevitability about conflict”.
•
The
position of the US was “no different” to that of the UK, “it agreed
to a United
Nations
process and it wants that process to be properly implemented
and
enforced”.
452.
As
recommended by Mr Straw and Mr Campbell, Mr Blair
used his speech
to senior
diplomats and others on 7 January to set out the importance for
the
UK of
remaining “the closest” ally of the US.
453.
Within that
context, Mr Blair stated that if Iraq defied the UN, the US
should
not be
“forced to take on this issue alone”.
454.
In his speech
to the Foreign Office Conference on 7 January about
Britain’s
place in
the world, Mr Blair stated that “people all over the world”
wanted the “universal
values” of
freedom, human rights, the rule of law and democracy, alongside
“justice, the
opportunity
for all”.155
The world
had an “overriding common interest to make progress
with
order”; and that the threat was “change through disorder, because
then the
consequences
of change cannot be managed”.
155
The
National Archives, 7 January 2003, PM Speech
to Foreign Office Conference in London.
81