9.2 | 23
May 2003 to June 2004
113.
Although UK
officials in Whitehall regarded Mr Bearpark as the UK’s
senior
representative
in the CPA, Mr Bearpark saw his primary loyalty as lying with
the CPA
and
Ambassador Bremer. He told the Inquiry that when he was asked by
the UK
Government
to go to Iraq:
“It was
made very clear to me … I would be expected to concentrate on what
is my
professional
background … economic reconstruction and physical reconstruction
…
[What] I
detected was that the British Government would have preferred… it
if I was
the deputy
administrator. This was never going to be acceptable to Jerry
[Bremer].”41
“I had been
given by the British Government to the CPA, but my allegiance
was
meant to be
100 percent to the CPA and it was very important that I
demonstrated
that
allegiance every single day.”42
115.
On 18 June,
Mr Sawers reported Ambassador Bremer’s view that the main
security
threat in
Iraq still came from former members of Saddam Hussein’s regime and
from
116.
Ambassador
Bremer remained concerned about the risk of Iranian intervention
in
Iraq and
the activity of a Shia militia known as the Badr Brigade, which had
strong links
to Iran,
where many of its members had been exiled until the Coalition
invasion of Iraq.
However, in
his view the priority was:
“… dealing
with the Ba’athist remnants and possible al-Qaida elements in the
Sunni
areas, and
he had no wish to open up a second front at this stage. So no
action
would be
taken against the Badr brigade for now.”
117.
In the absence
of a meeting of the AHMGIR, on 18 June Cabinet Office
officials
provided a
paper to bring Ministers up to date.44
They
reported that:
“Bremer’s
goal remains to convene the Political Council by mid-July, and
the
Constitutional
Conference as soon as possible thereafter. Bremer’s current
plan
is that
Constitutional Conference members should be nominated by the
Political
Council and
from the governorates, with Bremer making the final appointments
and
adding
members as the CPA thinks necessary to ensure a balanced
body.”
118.
The update
recorded progress on female participation, including a
women’s
conference
planned for 9 July, with a United Nations Development Fund for
Women
(UNIFEM)
follow-up in August.
41
Public
hearing, 6 June 2010, pages 3-4 and 17.
42
Public
hearing, 6 June 2010, page 17.
43
Telegram
042 IraqRep to FCO London, 18 June 2003, ‘Iraq: the Badr Brigade
and Iranian influence’.
44
Minute
Cabinet Office, 18 June 2003, ‘Iraq: Update for Ministers, 18 June
2003’.
225