The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
The OFF
programme was established by resolution 986 in April
1995.3
Implementation
began in
May 1996 after the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between
the
UN and
the Iraqi Government.
The
programme allowed for:
•
the export of
Iraqi oil;
•
the deposit of
oil revenues into a UN-controlled account; and
•
the use of
those revenues to procure food, medicine and other goods approved
by
the
UN.
Under the
UN sanctions regime, the OFF programme was the only legal way to
export
Iraqi
oil.
In the
period running up to the invasion of Iraq, the UK assessed that 60
percent of Iraqi
people
relied on supplies distributed under the OFF
programme.4
11.
Sections 1.1
and 1.2 describe the increasing challenges from 1999 to the
US/UK
policy for
the containment of Iraq.
12.
In January
2001, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO’s) Middle
East
Department
drew up an internal paper for a meeting of the FCO Policy Board,
which
reassessed
the UK’s “fundamental interests” in relation to Iraq and
recommended a new
approach to
promoting them.5
The UK’s
interests were identified as:
•
regional
stability, including through the non-proliferation of Weapons of
Mass
Destruction
(WMD);
•
energy
security: the region accounted for 33 percent of the world’s oil
production
and 66
percent of world oil reserves;
•
a “level
playing field” for UK companies: at its peak, UK trade with Iraq
was
US$500m a
year;
•
preserving
the credibility and authority of the UN Security
Council;
•
maintaining
the coherence of UK policy, including on human rights,
adherence
to UN
Security Council resolutions, and non-proliferation;
•
improving
the humanitarian and human rights situation in Iraq;
•
avoiding a
US/UK split; and
•
reducing
the UK’s isolation in the European Union (EU).
3
Office of
the Iraq Programme: Oil-for-Food website, [undated],
About the
programme.
4
Letter
Short to Blair, 14 February 2003, ‘Iraq: Humanitarian Planning and
the Role of the UN’.
5
Paper FCO,
January 2001, ‘Iraq: A Fresh Look at UK Interests’.
376