6.4 |
Planning and preparation for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, mid-2001
to January 2003
972.
On 30
December, Sir Michael Jay asked Mr Gray a number of questions
about
post-conflict
issues, including how far FCO papers on post-conflict issues had
been
shared with
the US and major EU partners.464
973.
Dr Amanda
Tanfield, Head of Iraq Section in MED, reported:
“Almost all
the UK papers have been shared with the US. We have only
withheld
from them
papers which have been overtaken by others that we have passed
to
them.
“We have
been more selective with EU partners. Foreign ministry officials in
France
and Germany
received the early planners [DSI] papers on ‘Scenarios for the
Future
of Iraq
after Saddam’ and ‘Consequences of Conflict for the Region’. We
have given
the French
planners … the paper on ‘Islamism in Iraq’.
“The
difficulty with sharing a lot of thinking on day after with EU
partners is that
day after
assumes regime change, which is difficult territory for many of
them,
particularly
Germany. And some of the more recent papers have been drafted in
the
context of
the ongoing UK-US official level day after talks, with the US
readership
974.
In January
2003, Mr Chilcott commented that the UK had received little in
return
from the US
(see Section 6.5).
975.
Other issues
raised by Sir Michael Jay on 30 December included:
•
whether
DFID’s concerns about involvement in Iraq policy had been
resolved;
and
•
whether the
FCO had financial and other contingency plans if more
close
protection
teams were needed for Embassy staff.466
976.
Dr Tanfield
confirmed that DFID was now “fully in the loop” and was represented
at
Mr
Ricketts’ daily Iraq meeting; and that contingency plans were in
place for deploying
close
protection teams to Baghdad and five other Embassies in the
region.467
977.
No senior
UK official attended the conference of Iraqi opposition groups
held
in London
from 14 to 17 December.
978.
The
conference cast further doubt on the credibility of many of those
groups.
464
Minute Jay
to Gray, 30 December 2002, ‘Iraq: The Day After
Issues’.
465
Minute
Tanfield to PUS [FCO], 9 January 2003, ‘Iraq: The Day After
Issues’.
466
Minute Jay
to Gray, 30 December 2002, ‘Iraq: The Day After
Issues’.
467
Minute
Tanfield to PUS [FCO], 9 January 2003, ‘Iraq: The Day After
Issues’.
277