The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
875.
Maj Gen Binns
reported that at the event, Prime Minister Maliki had
described
2008 as
“the year of redevelopment and reconstruction”.512
876.
Mr Wareing
told the Inquiry he had three roles:
•
to champion
economic development, particularly in Basra and the
south;
•
to champion
international investment into Iraq; and
•
to help set
up and to chair the BDC.513
877.
Mr Wareing
added that his role was not specifically to promote British
investment:
“…the line
that I pursued was … to try to push investment, not just from a
British or
indeed a
European or even a western … point of view, but basically any
investment
– and there
was a significant amount of investment from the Gulf
region.” 514
878.
Mr Alexander
visited Iraq from 11 to 12 December.515
879.
Ms Hendrie
reported that both Gen Petraeus and Lt Gen William Rollo, the
Senior
British
Military Representative, Iraq, had asked Mr Alexander what
more DFID could
do to
accelerate economic development in Basra to take advantage of the
current
improvement
in security. Both had made suggestions for additional projects and
for an
increase in
people – a “civilian surge”.
880.
In response,
Mr Alexander had made clear that any discussion of the
DFID
programme
“should be set within a larger conversation about UK objectives in
Iraq”.
881.
Ms Hendrie
told DFID colleagues on 14 December that Mr Alexander
wanted
a robust
discussion with other Ministers about the UK’s strategy in
Iraq:
“My sense
is that he believes, in the absence of clear Ministerial guidance
about
what HMG
can and should be trying to achieve, [that] DFID are being landed
with
pressure to
deliver an enormous agenda on economic growth in southern Iraq
which
a) we are
not necessarily best-suited for and in any case cannot be viewed as
the
responsibility
of a single department, and b) cannot produce meaningful results
in
the context
of a ‘broken’ politics at the centre in Baghdad and a highly
problematic
security
environment. He plans to engage actively in the conversation
about
what HMG’s
ambitions on the economic front should be and the role of
economic
development
in relation to security and political
reconciliation.” 516
512
Report
Binns, 13 December 2007, ‘GOC MND(SE) Weekly Letter – 13 December
2007’.
513
Public
hearing, 16 July 2010, page 3.
514
Public
hearing, 16 July 2010, page 12.
515
Minute
Hendrie to Wardell, 15 January 2008, ‘BTOR: Secretary of State
Visit to Iraq,
11‑12 December
2007’.
516
Email
Hendrie to DFID [junior official], 14 December 2007, ‘Follow-Up to
SoS Iraq Visit’.
338