The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
backed by
the threat, and if necessary, the use of force, would fall away and
that’s
519.
Mr Stephen
Pattison, Head of the FCO UN Department, told the
Inquiry:
“I am not
sure that the American Administration was ever formally committed
to
a second
resolution … I think … they were willing to let us have a go at
trying …
They
certainly did not see a legal necessity for it and they, I think,
obviously feared
that it
could only result in more complication at the UN Security
Council.”171
520.
Asked whether
that was his understanding, Mr Straw replied:
“That was,
of course, the downside. That it might expose divisions rather
than
resolve
them. I still with the benefit of hindsight think it was worth
attempting the
second
resolution. We were elusively close, in my judgement, to getting
those magic
nine votes
and no veto but it didn’t happen. That was their concern. That
said, the
Americans,
certainly Secretary Powell, were very assiduous in seeking to build
up
support for
the second resolution. There are records that you will have seen
where
he reports
he worked the phones with various people.”172
521.
In his memoir,
Mr Straw wrote that the leaders of the African nations, Chile
and
Mexico
“would not put their heads above the parapet knowing that France
would veto
‘whatever
the circumstances’. The resolution was dying.”173
522.
Mr Blair
told the Inquiry that the UK had come “pretty close” to a majority
of votes;
and that,
“we could have got Chile and Mexico actually if the French position
had been
523.
In a minute of
14 March, Mr Jonathan Powell recorded that Mr Blair had
agreed
that he
would start holding meetings of a “War Cabinet” from 19
March.175
524.
The
composition of the War Cabinet is addressed in Section
2.
525.
President
Chirac asked Mr Blair on 14 March if Mr Straw and
Mr de Villepin
could
discuss whether there was sufficient flexibility to find an agreed
way
forward.
Mr Blair agreed.
170
Public
hearing, 8 February 2010, pages 72-73.
171
Public
hearing, 31 January 2010, page 58.
172
Public
hearing, 2 February 2011, pages 92-93.
173
Straw
J. Last Man
Standing: Memoirs of a Political Survivor. Macmillan,
2012.
174
Public
hearing, 21 January 2011, pages 94-95.
175
Minute
Powell to Prime Minister, 14 March 2003, ‘War
Cabinet’.
490