The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
806.
The text of
Lord Goldsmith’s response is set out in the Box below.
“Authority
to use force against Iraq exists from the combined effect of
resolutions 678,
687 and
1441. All of these resolutions were adopted under Chapter VII of
the UN Charter
which
allows the use of force for the express purpose of restoring
international peace
and security:
1. In
resolution 678 the Security Council authorised force against Iraq,
to eject it [Iraq]
from Kuwait
and to restore peace and security in the area.
2. In
resolution 687, which set out the cease-fire conditions … the
Security Council
imposed
continuing obligations on Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass
destruction
in order to
restore international peace and security in the area. Resolution
687
suspended
but did not terminate the authority to use force under resolution
678.
3. A
material breach of resolution 687 revives the authority to use
force under resolution
678.
4. In
resolution 1441 the Security Council determined that Iraq has been
and remains in
material
breach of resolution 687, because it has not fully complied with
its obligations
to disarm
under that resolution.
5. The
Security Council in resolution 1441 gave Iraq ‘a final opportunity
to comply with its
disarmament
obligations’ and warned Iraq of the ‘serious consequences’ if it
did not.
6. The
Security Council also decided in resolution 1441 that, if Iraq
failed at any time to
comply with
and co-operate fully in the implementation of resolution 1441, that
would
constitute
a further material breach.
7. It is
plain that Iraq has failed so to comply and therefore Iraq was at
the time of
resolution
1441 and continues to be in material breach.
8. Thus the
authority to use force under resolution 678 has revived and so
continues
today.
Resolution
1441 would in terms have provided that a further decision of the
Security
Council to
sanction force was required if that had been intended. Thus, all
that
resolution 1441
requires is reporting to and discussion by the Security Council of
Iraq’s
failures,
but not an express further decision to use force.”345
807.
Ms Harman
repeated Lord Goldsmith’s Written Answer in the House of
Commons
as a
pursuant answer to Mr Blair’s response on 14 March to a
Question from Mr Cash,
asking
Mr Blair if he would “make a statement on the legal basis for
military intervention
345
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 17 March
2002, column WA2.
346
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 17 March
2002, columns 515-516W.
144