3.8 |
Development of UK strategy and options, 8 to 20 March
2003
320.
Mr Ivanov
agreed to analyse the proposals and respond.
321.
Mr Blair
decided not to seek to extend the deadline of 17 March. In
a
telephone
call with President Bush on 12 March, he proposed only that the
US
and UK
should continue to seek a compromise in the UN, while confirming
that
he knew it
would not happen. He would say publicly that France had
prevented
a resolution.
322.
Mr Blair
sought President Bush’s help in handling the debate in the House
of
Commons
planned for Tuesday 18 March, where he would face a major
challenge
to win a
vote supporting military action.
323.
Mr Blair
wanted:
•
to avoid a
gap between the end of the negotiating process and the
Parliamentary
vote in which France or another member of the Security
Council
might table a resolution that attracted support from the
majority
of the
Council; and
•
US
statements on the publication of a Road Map on the MEPP and
the
need for a
further resolution on a post-conflict Iraq.
324.
On the
afternoon of 12 March, Mr Blair and President Bush discussed
the latest
position
and the difficulties with Chile and Mexico.106
325.
In preparation
for the call, Mr Rycroft advised Mr Blair that he needed
“to decide if
you want to
ask for the further week”.107
If he did,
Mr Blair could “make the case for trying
over the
next 24 hours to secure a UN resolution based on the Blix agreed
tests with the
revised
deadline of 24 March (or whatever he [President Bush]
accepts)”.
326.
If
Mr Blair decided not to make the case for more time or it was
rejected by
President
Bush, Mr Rycroft advised Mr Blair to set out a
“fallback”:
•
He had “not
given up hope of trying to secure a second resolution” and
he
knew that
President Bush “wanted to get out of the UN morass”, but he
needed
“a further
24 hours” to see if he could “get the Chileans to put forward
a
serious proposal”.
•
It was
“important” that the US did not “publicly lose interest in the UN
route”
because of
concerns that an alternative resolution with a “long, e.g.
45-day,
time-line”
could be put forward which “could attract 11 votes”.
106
Letter
Rycroft to McDonald, 12 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Prime Minister’s
Telephone Conversation with
President
Bush, 12 March’.
107
Minute
Rycroft to Prime Minister, 12 March 2003, ‘Bush Call’.
455