3.7 |
Development of UK strategy and options, 1 February to 7 March
2003
Mr Powell
commented, “how do we know if the French will veto if we don’t
put
853.
Mr Powell
also recorded that Mr Blair was very opposed to the
idea.
854.
Sir David
Manning commented “Me too”.263
855.
In his
memoir, War of
Necessity War of Choice,
Mr Haass described
a “mini‑debate”
within the US Administration:
“… about
whether to press for a second resolution despite its poor
prospects.
Some …
favored doing so as a means of pressurising others to stand up and
declare
themselves
against going to war, even if it did not appear that we had the
votes to
win. I
never understood this logic and thought this approach misguided,
and instead
argued that
the worst of all outcomes would be to lose a vote and then go to
war.
This would
be widely viewed as … arrogant … and raise even more
fundamental
questions
concerning the legitimacy and legality of what the US was
contemplating.
I also
thought it would do real and lasting damage to the United Nations.
Far
better to
explore getting a second resolution and then pull back if
consultations
demonstrated
that it was likely that we could not prevail … I argued all this
out in
a
memorandum that Powell distributed to the [NSC] Principals.
Fortunately, this
position
carried the day, and the Administration decided to pull back if and
when
it became
obvious that no international consensus favoring war would
emerge.”264
856.
An Arab
League Summit on 1 March concluded that the crisis in Iraq
must
be resolved
by peaceful means and in the framework of international
legitimacy.
An Arab
League Summit meeting, held in Sharm al-Sheikh on 1 March,
discussed the
“serious
developments in the crisis over Iraq”. The communiqué recorded that
the Summit
had
resolved:
•
“To reaffirm
its absolute rejection of a strike on Iraq … The Iraqi crisis must
be
resolved by
peaceful means and in the framework of international
legitimacy.”
•
“To demand
that the inspection teams should be given enough time to
complete
their
mission … and to call upon them to continue to observe objectivity
…”
•
“To emphasise
the UNSC’s responsibility to ensure that Iraq and its people
are
not harmed,
and to protect Iraq’s independence and the integrity and unity
of
its territories
…”
262
Manuscript
comment Powell on Letter Meyer to McDonald, 28 February 2002 [sic],
‘Iraq: Confronting
a French
Veto’.
263
Manuscript
comment Manning on Letter Meyer to McDonald, 28 February 2002
[sic], ‘Iraq: Confronting
a French
Veto’.
264
Haass
RN. War of
Necessity War of Choice: A Memoir of two Iraqi War. Simon
& Schuster, 2009.
333