The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
820.
The IPU
repeated the advice in the annotated agenda of 5 March that the
UK
should
follow the US plan to administer Iraq as a whole and not seek
“general UK
responsibility
for the administration of any geographic area of Iraq in the medium
term”.
The IPU
added:
“However,
we need to be clear that if we take on leadership of a military
sector,
previous
deployments of this type suggest that we are likely to inherit
wider
responsibilities
than purely security.”
821.
The Inquiry
has seen no response to the Phase IV plan.
822.
Mr Rycroft
put five other FCO papers to Mr Blair, most of which had been
prepared
before
Mr Blair’s request of 6 March:
•
elements of
a resolution “authorising our post-conflict
requirements”;
•
issues UK
forces might confront in the first 48 hours of
hostilities;
•
the role of
UN weapons inspectors (see Section 4.4);
•
‘Iraq Day
After – Oil’; and
•
‘Preliminary
UK Views on Economic Actions in First 30/60 Days’.347
823.
The IPU
prepared the paper on oil. It is not clear which, if any, of the
others was
written by
the IPU.
824.
The FCO
advised No.10 that the paper setting out elements for a
possible
resolution
was “broadly in line with emerging US thinking”. The suggested
elements
included
the proposal that a UN Special Co-ordinator (UNSC) would be
appointed, and
would in
turn appoint or supervise the creation of an Iraqi Interim
Council.348
825.
Other core
elements of the draft resolution were:
•
authorisation
for Member States acting under unified command to provide
an
international
security presence in Iraq;
•
continuation
of OFF, overseen by the Security Council, to ensure the
transparent
and fair
use of Iraqi oil revenues;
•
creation of
a UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI) to co-ordinate the work
of
NGOs and UN
agencies.
826.
UK efforts to
secure a UN mandate for a post-conflict administration,
culminating
in the
adoption of resolution 1483 on 22 May, are described in detail in
Section 9.1.
347
Minute
Rycroft to Prime Minister, 7 March 2003, ‘Iraq: Weekend
papers’.
348
Paper
[unattributed and undated], ‘Iraq: Phase IV Elements for a possible
resolution’.
460