The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
joint
(civilian and military) taskforce, under a single (unspecified)
command, to plan such
short-term
interventions.
637.
Section 9.5
describes the development in October and November of the
UK’s
Forward
Plan, at Mr Blair’s request.
638.
Mr McDonald
sent a draft Plan to Mr Blair’s Private Secretary on 24
November.367
Copies of
the draft were sent to Mrs Beckett, Mr Browne and SIS, but not
Mr Benn.
639.
The draft Plan
recognised that:
“The wider
context … is the growing reality of Iraqi sovereignty. The
Iraqi
Government
and political class have their own priorities, which are not the
same as
ours.
Maliki’s highest priority now is accelerating the pace of security
transition.”
640.
The draft Plan
included proposed actions under three headings:
•
Political
accommodation;
•
Governance
and economic development; and
•
Security.
641.
On governance
and economic development, the draft Plan identified the
“core
problems”
as a lack of political will and leadership and weak capacity across
the Iraqi
Government
to drive forward a reform agenda and spend its budget. The
immediate
objective
was to impress upon Prime Minister Maliki and his senior Ministers
and
advisers
that economic management and reform required sustained attention
and
visible
leadership, as a strategic and security issue. Prime Minister
Maliki also needed
to ensure
that provincial governments were properly resourced and held to
account,
as part
of the process of forging a political settlement.
642.
Immediate
actions that Prime Minister Maliki might take
included:
•
striking a
deal on oil revenue sharing and starting to restructure the oil
sector
so it
behaved more like a business;
•
striking a
deal on fiscal federalism, and getting Iraqi resources flowing to
the
provinces
to improve services; and
•
by early
2007, adopting the International Compact as a key part of the
Iraqi
Government’s
reform agenda.
643.
The UK would
also press Prime Minister Maliki to:
•
establish
and chair an “economic Task Force” to give strategic
direction
on economic
management and reform and hold Ministers and
provincial
governments
to account;
367
Minute
McDonald to Banner, 24 November 2006, ‘Iraq Forward Plan’ attaching
Paper [draft], [undated],
‘Iraq:
Forward Plan’.
300