The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
57.
Iraq informed
the Security Council of its decision to comply with the
resolution
“without
conditions” in a letter from Mr Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign
Minister, to
Mr Kofi Annan,
the UN Secretary-General, on 13 November 2002.18
58.
The key points
in the letter in relation to WMD were:
•
The claims
by President Bush and Mr Blair that “Iraq might have produced,
or
might have
been on the way to producing, nuclear weapons” since 1998
and
that “Iraq
had indeed produced chemical and biological weapons” was “an
utterly
unfounded
fabrication” and “baseless”.
•
Iraq had
agreed to the return of inspectors, and had “already stated” that
it had
“neither
produced nor possessed any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons
of
mass
destruction during the absence of the inspectors”.
59.
The letter
challenged a statement made by Sir Jeremy Greenstock that Iraq
had
been
provided with the opportunity to dispose of its weapons of mass
destruction, but
Iraq had
ignored that opportunity and decided to keep possession. The letter
asked why
“none of
the representatives” of the members of the Security Council had
“asked …
when, how
or where such an alleged decision had been taken by Iraq to keep
weapons
of mass
destruction”.
60.
The UK
remained sceptical about Iraq’s intentions, focusing on its
track
record of
deceit, and repeating the need to maintain the threat of military
action to
secure
compliance.
61.
In a lecture
that evening, Mr Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, welcomed
Iraq’s
response
“so far as it goes” but added:
“… we must
remain vigilant for experience with Iraq tells us to temper
optimism with
scepticism
and to read the small print. Iraq’s intentions are notoriously
changeable.
What
matters above all is their actions not their words.
“… The
history of UN weapons inspections in Iraq is littered with
examples of deceit,
evasion,
intimidation and harassment. I hope even Iraq will recognise
the
consequences
of any repeat. If Saddam fails to co-operate fully, then he faces
force.”19
18
UN Security
Council, ‘Letter dated 13 November 2002 from the Minister for
Foreign Affairs of Iraq
addressed
to the Secretary-General’ (S/2002/1242).
19
The
National Archives, 13 November 2002, The Future
of Foreign Policy.
302