The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
877.
The JIC also
judged that the emergence of hostage-taking as a tactic
by
anti‑Coalition
forces was “adding to the climate of fear and encouraging
foreign
contractors
to leave”.
878.
On 15 April,
Mr Blair and Mr Annan met in New York.489
They agreed
that the
political
plan being formulated by Mr Brahimi should form part of a new
resolution and
that the
negotiation of its text should begin in May.
879.
Mr Blair
underlined the importance of the UN’s role in Iraq, both for
political
leadership
and in communicating with the Iraqi people. He offered UK support
for the
deployment
of a greater number of UN officials to Iraq.
880.
On 15 April,
Sir Nigel sent Dr Rice a “personal paper” from Mr Blair
for
President Bush,
which Mr Blair hoped the President might read before their
conversation
881.
In his paper
Mr Blair identified two problems:
“… the
first is a residue of discord over the decision to go into Iraq.
People who
disagreed
are desperate to be proved right. So every difficulty is magnified;
every
step
forward ignored; every setback hailed as failure.
…
“The second
problem is more immediately serious. It is that, irrespective of
the
original
decision to go into Iraq, people ask of us: do they have a plan for
Iraq that
will work?
Do they know what they are doing?”
882.
The first was
an “issue of political vision”; the second, one of
“practical
competence”.
Mr Blair summarised his strategy as:
“– local
engagement by Iraqis to sort the Sunni and MAS [Muqtada
al-Sadr]
problems,
with Fallujah critical;
––
backed by a
specific set of offers to deal with grievances;
––
backed by an Iraq-wide campaign of communication, led and fronted
by Iraqis.”
883.
Mr Blair
also proposed a new resolution, firstly to provide the US and UK
with the
political
and military authority they required, but also including “measures
on human
rights and
due process so that the resolution sets out a vision of Iraq as a
democratic
state that
puts our critics on the defensive”.
489
Letter
Rycroft to Adams, 15 April 2004, ‘Prime Minister’s meeting with the
UN Secretary General:
15
April’.
490
Letter
Sheinwald to Rice, 15 April 2004, [untitled], attaching Note [Blair
to Bush], [undated], ‘Note’.
350