6.5 |
Planning and preparation for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, January to
March 2003
1.
Sections 6.4
and 6.5 consider the UK’s planning and preparation for a
post-Saddam
Hussein
Iraq between late 2001 and March 2003.
2.
The two parts
address:
•
the
development of UK post-conflict strategy and
objectives;
•
planning
and preparation to implement those objectives;
•
UK civilian
and military planning machinery;
•
UK
influence on US planning and preparation and the impact of US
planning on
the UK;
and
•
Parliamentary
interest in post-conflict planning and preparation.
3.
The two parts
do not consider:
•
military
plans for the invasion, which are addressed in Sections 6.1 and
6.2;
•
intelligence
on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) or preparations for
the
post‑invasion
search for WMD, addressed in Section 4;
•
the
financial and human resources available for post-conflict
administration and
reconstruction,
addressed in Sections 13 and 15; and
•
the outcome
in post-conflict Iraq, which is addressed in Sections 9 and
10.
4.
This Section
covers the 10 weeks between the decision to deploy UK forces
and
the first
post-invasion meeting between Mr Blair and President Bush at
Camp David
on 26 and
27 March 2003.
5.
The preceding
period, from mid-2001 to Mr Blair’s decision on 17 January
2003 to
deploy UK
forces to support US military preparations, is addressed in Section
6.4.
6.
Key findings
for Sections 6.4 and 6.5 are listed at the start of Section
6.4.
7.
The Inquiry’s
conclusions relating to both parts are at the end of this
Section.
8.
In the
run-up to the second round of trilateral inter-agency talks on
post-
conflict
issues in Washington on 22 January 2003, UK officials focused on
how to
influence
US thinking on the post-conflict role of the UN.
9.
Mr Peter
Ricketts, FCO Political Director, predicted that discussion on
the
role of the
UN would be “hard going”. The US was wedded to a prolonged
US
occupation
and opposed to any substantial role for the UN.
10.
The first
round of US/UK/Australia inter-agency talks on post-conflict issues
took
place in
Washington on 6 November 2002 and is described in Section
6.4.
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