3.8 |
Development of UK strategy and options, 8 to 20 March
2003
137.
President
Chirac stated:
“… it seems
to me that war is something which will break up the world
coalition
against
terrorism … we mustn’t forget that a very great majority of the
world’s
countries
and peoples are against this war … France isn’t isolated … So if
there
is a war
there is indeed a risk of a new upsurge in terrorism.”
138.
The headline
in Le
Monde the following
day was “Quelles que
soient les
circonstances,
la France votera non”.38
139.
Commenting on
the interview the following day, Sir John Holmes wrote that,
“Even
if only in
response to a question”, President Chirac had gone “out of his way
to make his
position
categoric”.39
He
added:
“The French
calculation is presumably that this makes it as hard as possible
for
the
Russians and Chinese not to follow, and as easy as possible for the
swing six
to abstain,
as an obvious middle course between the two opposing blocs. The
only
glimmer of
encouragement that I can see for us is that he may have played
this
card too
soon, apparently ruling out any flexibility even if the text of a
resolution is
amended …
We may be able to use this against the French in arguing with
others.
I suppose
it is possible in theory that … Chirac could change to an
abstention.
But this
is clutching at straws, such is the limb he has deliberately put
himself on.”
140.
Sir John
Holmes told the Inquiry that President Chirac had prepared his
remarks
and had
decided at that stage that he was “fully in opposition to … the
invasion of Iraq”.40
141.
Sir John
thought President Chirac had been saying: “The text, as we have it
at this
moment, is
not one we can support and we will vote against
it.”41
142.
Sir John
stated, “There was genuine ambiguity” about what President Chirac
had
meant:
“There was scope for interpretation.”42
143.
Sir Jeremy
Greenstock also told the Inquiry:
“The fact
was that, although the words didn’t surprise us, the fact that
Chirac said
it at that
time, in that way, was politically aggressive by the French. That
was
38
Le
Monde, 11 March
2003. [Taken from Le Monde
(international), 22 March
2003.]
39
Telegram
124 Paris to FCO London, 11 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Chirac’s TV
Interview – France’s Veto’.
40
Public
hearing, 29 June 2010, page 40.
41
Public
hearing, 29 June 2010, pages 43-44.
42
Public
hearing, 29 June 2010, page 49.
43
Private
hearing, 26 May 2010, page 35.
425