10.2 |
Reconstruction: July 2004 to July 2009
•
Mr Benn
had spoken to Mr Paul Wolfowitz, the President of the World
Bank, the
previous
day and there was now agreement that the World Bank would
open
a permanent
office in Baghdad. Mr Benn had pressed Mr Wolfowitz to
provide
assistance
to the energy sector.
555.
DOP(I) agreed
that the action points set out in Sir Nigel Sheinwald’s letter
of
23 May
should be pursued.
556.
A Cabinet
Office official chaired a meeting to discuss Mr Etherington’s
letter of
17 May
on 25 May.318
The
meeting:
•
agreed the
“light-touch
regional role for the PRT” proposed
by Mr Etherington;
•
endorsed
the proposal to create a Steering Group “to discuss strategic
issues”.
The scope
of the Steering Group would be informed by “wider work under
way
on
Basra”;
•
on running
costs, agreed that “in principle, [the] FCO could look to fund
security
and life
support costs … and that PCRU could fund staff costs”;
•
on
programme funding, asked departments to provide details of their
current and
proposed
programmes to the PRT; and
•
discussed
but did not reach a conclusion on to whom the PRT should report
in
Iraq and in
London.
557.
Prime Minister
Maliki and Vice President Tariq Hashemi visited Basra on 31
May.319
During his
visit, Prime Minister Maliki declared a state of emergency in
Basra, lasting
558.
Mr Patey
reported on 2 June that the new Iraqi Minister of Electricity, Dr
Karim
Wahid, had
asked for UK assistance in funding two power projects in the South,
at a
combined
cost of US$60m.321
559.
Mr Blair
held a private meeting with Mr Browne on 6
June.322
He asked
Mr Browne
to focus on
the situation in Basra, and to:
“… make
sure that the political and military strategies were aligned and
proceeding
together.
This required micro-management. We had been slow to grip the
situation
there
…”
560.
In mid-June,
Prime Minister Maliki formally launched the Baghdad Security
Plan
(see
Section 9.5).
318
Minute
Cabinet Office [junior official] to Aldred, 25 May 2006, ‘Ad Hoc
Discussion on PRTs’.
319
Minute
Cooper, 1 June 2006, ‘MND(SE) – southern Iraq Update – 1 June
2006’.
320
The
Guardian, 31 May
2006, State of
emergency for Basra.
321
eGram
21675/06 Baghdad to FCO London, 2 June 2006, ‘Iraq: Meeting with
Minister of Electricity’.
322
Minute
Sheinwald to Banner, 8 June 2006, ‘Iraq and
Afghanistan’.
289