9.1  |  March to 22 May 2003

267.  During the video conference, Mr Rycroft and Mr Bellinger were tasked to go

through the US draft in detail and produce a further version for discussion.

268.  The next version was sent by Mr Belllinger on the same day.146 It gave the UN a

role working alongside the Occupying Powers on the creation of the IIA, but not leading

the process.

269.  It also recorded separate US and UK language on who would control the Iraqi

Development Fund, and how it would be administered. The UK draft gave control to

“the authorities in Iraq, including the Interim Iraqi Administration when established”,

the US version to the Occupying Powers or CPA.

May 2003

270.  A further video conference, with similar attendees to the last, was held on 1 May.147

271.  Mr Straw told participants that the UK had a “generic problem” with references to

the CPA, and would prefer to be referred to as “Occupying Power” because “references

to the CPA provided an unnecessary opportunity for dispute in the Security Council”.

272.  A detailed discussion of drafting points followed, at the end of which there

remained issues with references to disbursement of oil revenues and the OFF account.

Mr Straw and Dr Rice agreed that outstanding points should be agreed within a few days

so that a draft could be shared with permanent members of the Security Council during

the following week.

273.  General the Lord Walker told the Inquiry that when he visited Iraq shortly after

becoming Chief of the Defence Staff, in May 2003:

“It was very much a honeymoon period at that stage. We walked through Sadr City,

berets and no flak jackets. We walked down the markets in Basra, berets and no flak

jackets, the usual sort of smiling citizens, some of them – certainly not hostile, some

of them a bit sort of stand-offish.”148

274.  On 1 May, President Bush made a speech on board the US aircraft carrier

Abraham Lincoln. In front of a sign bearing the words “Mission Accomplished” he said:

“Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States

and our allies have prevailed. And now our Coalition is engaged in securing and

reconstructing that country.”149

146  Letter Bellinger to Rycroft, 30 April 2003 attaching draft ‘Resolution on Post-Conflict Iraq’.

147  Letter Cannon to McDonald, 1 May 2003, ‘Iraq/UN: Video-conference with Condi Rice, 1 May’.

148  Public hearing, 1 February 2010, page 16.

149  CNN News, 2 May 2003, Bush makes historic speech aboard warship.

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