The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
596.
Towards the
end of November, Mr Richmond wrote to Mr Crompton to look
ahead
at key
issues for the seven months until the CPA came to an end in June
2004.335
He listed:
“•
re-select
Provincial Councils in a number of governorates;
•
help draft
the Transitional Administrative Law;
•
organise
the caucus elections and build up civil/political
society;
•
launch a
nationwide political dialogue;
•
keep a
suspicious Shia majority on side while reassuring a resentful and
angry
Sunni
population;
•
avoid dealing
with the security problems in ways which alienate the
local
population
and establish a coherent security strategy to deal with
the
insurgency;
•
decide on
the post handover arrangements for the Multi-National
forces;
•
prioritise
the outstanding economic issues …”
597.
He identified
the most difficult issue in drafting the TAL as federalism, and
in
particular
the status of the Kurdish north.
598.
Mr Hoon
told Parliament on 27 November that:
“As part of
our routine management of the UK’s land deployment we intend
shortly
to conduct
a roulement of our forces in theatre. This will begin with an
incremental
replacement
of HQ 3 (UK) Division with a composite headquarters for MND(SE),
the
staff for
which will be drawn from across UK Defence and from allies … We
expect
the level
of the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force presence in theatre to remain
broadly
stable … We
will continue to keep the size and mix of forces in theatre under
careful
review and
we can expect to make further adjustments to our force structures
…
“While we
remain determined to maintain appropriate forces deployed in Iraq
and
the wider
Gulf region for as long as is necessary, we are equally determined
that no
forces
should remain deployed for any longer than is
necessary.”336
599.
The exact
total of deployed troops was not mentioned in Mr Hoon’s
statement
to Parliament.
600.
On 27
November, Cabinet Office officials briefed the AHMGIR that
“[Grand]
Ayatollah
[al-]Sistani, the senior and influential Shia cleric, is said still
to have doubts
over the
legitimacy of the new [political] process.”337
335
Letter
Richmond to Crompton, 27 November 2003, ‘Iraq: The Next Seven
Months’.
336
House of
Commons, Official
Report, 27
November 2003, columns 29-30WS.
337 Annotated
Agenda, 27 November 2003, Ad Hoc Group on Iraq Rehabilitation
meeting.
306