The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
979.
In late
November, representatives of six Iraqi exile groups called on Mr
Gray to
seek
“permission” to hold a conference of opposition groups in London
after plans to
hold it in
Brussels had fallen through.468
980.
Mr Gray
informed Mr Straw’s Private Office that he had made it clear to the
group
that he had
no authority to authorise or prevent such a meeting and that they
must make
their own
arrangements and abide by the law. He had also made it clear that
attendance
by Mr Blair
or Mr Straw was “out of the question”. Mr Gray recommended
against
attendance
by a Minister or senior official, but advised that “it would be
right to send a
relatively
junior observer perhaps from Research Analysts”.
981.
Mr Gray held
to that view after the US informed the FCO that it would send
“a
large and
senior delegation, probably led by Zalmay Khalilzad, Senior
Director … at
the
National Security Council and Ambassador at large to the Iraqi
Opposition”.469
Mr
Gray
advised Mr Straw’s Private Office that the US had not urged the UK
to raise the
level of
its attendance and there was no reason to do so. The event was
“unlikely to
be
an edifying one, and I think we should be wary of association
with it, even to please
the Americans”.
During
2002, representatives of the Iraqi opposition met in the UK a
number of times,
including
under the auspices of the State Department’s Future of Iraq
Project. In each
case, UK
engagement was at junior official level, led by FCO Research
Analysts.
Significant
events attended by FCO officials included:
•
the US-hosted
Democratic Principles Working Group of the Future of
Iraq
Project at
Cobham, Surrey, on 4 and 5 September;470
•
a follow-up
meeting at Wilton Park on 10 and 11 October;471
•
the first
conference of the Iraqi National Movement at Kensington and
Chelsea
Town Hall
on 28 and 29 September;472
and
•
the Iraqi
opposition conference in London from 14 to 17
December.473
468
Minute Gray
to Private Secretary [FCO], 22 November 2002, ‘Proposed Meeting of
Iraqi Oppositionists,
London,
10-15 December’.
469
Minute Gray
to Private Secretary [FCO], 5 December 2002, ‘Iraq: Proposed
Oppositionists’ Conference.
London,
13-15 December’.
470
Teleletter
Hetherington to Washington [junior official], 6 September 2002,
‘Iraq: US-hosted ‘Democratic
Principles
Working Group’.
471
Telegram
104 FCO London to Amman, 20 November 2002, ‘Iraqi Opposition
Sitrep’; Report Democratic
Principles
Working Group, November 2002, ‘Final Report on the Transition to
Democracy in Iraq’.
472
Teleletter
Wilson to Amman [junior official], 30 September 2002, ‘Iraq: Iraqi
National Movement,
First Conference,
28-29 Sept 2002’.
473
Telegram
111 FCO London to Amman, 17 December 2002, ‘Iraq: Opposition
Conference
14-17
December’.
278