6.5 |
Planning and preparation for a post-Saddam Hussein Iraq, January to
March 2003
“Any
military presence, should it be necessary, will be temporary and
intended to
promote
security and elimination of weapons of mass destruction; the
delivery of
humanitarian
aid; and the conditions for the reconstruction of Iraq. Our
commitment
to support
the people of Iraq will be for the long term.”
1034.
Mr Blair
commented further at the concluding press conference:
“… should
it come to conflict, we make a pledge to the people of Iraq … who
are the
primary
victims of Saddam …
“… [W]e
will help Iraq rebuild – and not rebuild because of the problems of
conflict,
where if it
comes to that we will do everything we can to minimise the
suffering of the
Iraqi
people, but rebuild Iraq because of the appalling legacy that the
rule of Saddam
1035.
On 16 March,
in a television interview with Sir David Frost, Mr Brown said
the UK
“would be
committed, if there were to be military action, to the
reconstruction of Iraq”.440
He
explained that reconstruction “should take place under the auspices
of the United
Nations”.
1036.
Mr Straw
set out the UK’s approach to reconstruction in more detail in a
speech
to the
Newspaper Society Annual Conference on 1 April (see Section
13.1).
1037.
UK concerns
about shortcomings in post-conflict planning and
preparation,
and
uncertainty about the nature and scope of the UK’s role in
post-conflict Iraq,
persisted
after the Azores Summit.
1038.
FCO legal
advice on 17 March about the compatibility of post-conflict
tasks
with the
rules and obligations of military occupation stated that Security
Council
authorisation:
•
was not
needed for humanitarian assistance or “rehabilitation” in
the
sense of
essential repair work closely connected with
humanitarian
assistance;
but
•
would be
required for any reconstruction or institutional reform
beyond
what was
necessary for the relief effort.
439
The
Guardian, 17 March
2003, Full text:
Azores press conference.
440
BBC
News, 16 March
2003, BBC
Breakfast with Frost Interview: Gordon Brown, MP, Chancellor of
the
Exchequer
March 16th 2003.
497