4.1 |
Iraq WMD assessments, pre-July 2002
much harder
to resist the logic that we must take action to deal with an evil
regime that
threatened
us with its WMD programme”.
438.
Mr Blair
also considered that the US and UK would still face the question of
why
they had
decided to act now; “what had changed?”
439.
In the
joint press conference on 6 April, Mr Blair stated that the
threat of
WMD was
real and had to be dealt with.
440.
Mr Blair
said he and President Bush had agreed that “the issue of weapons
of
mass
destruction cannot be ducked, it is a threat, it is a danger to our
world and we must
heed that
threat and act to prevent it being realised”.189
441.
Subsequently
Mr Blair stated:
“There is a
reason why United Nations resolutions were passed … calling upon
him
[Saddam
Hussein] to stop developing weapons of mass destruction … and that
is
we know he
has been developing the weapons.
“We know
that those weapons constitute a threat …”
442.
As part of his
advice to Mr Blair on a statement to Parliament about the
discussions
with
President Bush, Mr Straw wrote that Mr Blair could say
that the document on Iraq
would be
produced “shortly”.190
In
Mr Straw’s view the UK could “certainly get
something
out pretty
quickly”.
443.
In his
statement to the House of Commons on 10 April, Mr Blair said
only that
Saddam
Hussein was “developing weapons of mass destruction”, was “a threat
to his
own people
and the region”, and that if he was “allowed to develop these
weapons” that
would be a
threat to the UK.191
444.
In his
response to a question from Mr Tam Dalyell (Labour),
Mr Blair said there was
“no doubt”
that Saddam Hussein was:
“… still
trying to acquire nuclear capability and ballistic missile
capability.
Furthermore,
although we do not know what has happened, we suspect that
the
piles of
chemical and biological weapons remain.”192
445.
Asked by
Mr Llew Smith (Labour) on 16 April why he had not published
the dossier
on the
status of Iraq’s weapons programmes, Mr Blair
replied:
“We have
already placed some evidence concerning Iraq’s programmes in
the
Library of
the House. When the time is right, we shall release further
material,
including
the threat posed by the development of weapons of mass
destruction.
189
The White
House, 6 April 2002, President
Bush, Prime Minister Blair Hold Press Conference.
190
Minute
Straw to Prime Minister, 9 April 2002, ‘Your Commons
Statement’.
191
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 10 April
2002, columns 22-24.
192
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 10 April
2002, columns 31-32.
93