4.4 | The
search for WMD
efforts to
assist Iraq with conventional arms procurement, in breach of
UN
sanctions.
•
The
Governments of Jordan, China, India, South Korea, Bulgaria,
Ukraine,
Cyprus,
Egypt, Lebanon, Georgia, France, Poland, Romania and
Taiwan
allowed
private and/or state-owned companies to support Iraq’s
conventional
arms
procurement programmes.
•
The number
of countries supporting Iraq’s schemes to undermine
sanctions
increased
dramatically between 1995 and 2003.
•
A number of
bilateral trade agreements with “neighbouring” countries,
including
Jordan,
Syria, Turkey, Egypt and Yemen, eventually led to sanctions
violations.
•
France was one
of the top three countries with companies or
individuals
receiving
secret oil vouchers.
•
There was a
significant amount of captured documentation showing
contracts
between
Iraq and Russian companies “close to government”.
In his
speech to the Labour Party conference on 28 September,
Mr Blair raised the issue
of trust
and the decisions he had made on future security in the preceding
three years.473
Mr Blair
said that he wanted to deal with the issue of Iraq “head on”. He
stated:
“The
evidence about Saddam having actual biological and chemical
weapons, as
opposed to
the capability to develop them, has turned out to be
wrong.
“I
acknowledge that and accept it.
“I simply
point out, such evidence was agreed by the whole international
community,
not least
because Saddam had used such weapons against his own people
and
neighbouring
countries.
“And the
problem is, I can apologise for the information that turned out to
be wrong,
but I
can’t, sincerely at least, apologise for removing
Saddam.
“The world
is a better place with Saddam in prison not in power.”
Mr Blair
challenged the “belief that the basic judgement I have made since
September
11th
[2001], including on Iraq, is wrong, that by our actions we have
made matters worse
not
better”. He acknowledged that the issue had “divided the country”,
but set out his view
of the need
to deal with the threat from the “wholly new phenomenon of
worldwide global
terrorism”,
including in Iraq, and the importance of the alliance with the
US.
473
BBC
News,
28 September 2004, Full text
of Blair’s Speech.
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