The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
The Foreign
Affairs Select Committee (FASC) published its report into the
incident on
17 July
2007.377
The FASC
concluded that it was “difficult to fault” the UK’s
diplomatic
approach to
the incident, and condemned the Iranian authorities for the
actions. It found
no evidence
of a deal between UK and Iran to ensure release. The decision to
allow
individuals
to sell their stories to the media, however, was found to be “a
disturbing failure
of
judgement”.
701.
On 23 March,
Deputy Prime Minister Zawbaie, a Sunni, was seriously injured
by
a suicide
attack carried out by one of his own security
staff.378
Minutes
later, at least nine
people,
including Mr Zawbaie’s brother and sister, two guards and an
imam were killed
by a car
bomb in one of his security team’s vehicles.
702.
Towards the
end of March, Ambassador Ryan Crocker took up his post as the
new
US
Ambassador to Iraq.379
A career
diplomat, he had previously served as Ambassador
in Lebanon,
Kuwait, Syria and Pakistan. Between May and August 2003, he
had
deployed to
Baghdad as Director of Governance in the Coalition Provisional
Authority.
703.
After a visit
to Washington from 25 to 27 March Mr McDonald reported that
the city
was
“obsessed by Iraq”.380
He
wrote:
“Whatever
the reasons for the Republicans’ defeat in November 2006 …
Democrats
in Congress
were behaving as if Iraq had been the main issue, giving them
a
mandate now
to change policy. Nineteen months before presidential election
day,
Iraq is
shaping the campaign … The effect of Iraq on presidential politics
rather than
the effect
of what the US is doing in Iraq is the focus of
attention.
“No one I
met expected Bush to change course. If Operation Fardh al‑Qanoon
failed,
then there
would have to be another similar plan; Bush would not leave or lose
Iraq
during his
presidency. Whatever Petraeus said he needed, Bush would try to
give.”
704.
On 27 March, a
Deputy Chief of the Assessments Staff provided
Mr McDonald
with an
update covering recent intelligence on progress towards national
reconciliation
705.
The update
said that progress on national reconciliation had been
“negligible”, with
no progress
on de‑Ba’athification, slim prospects of provincial elections going
ahead in
the near
future, no significant progress on the constitutional review and
limited progress
on a
Hydrocarbons Law.
377
Sixth
Report from the Foreign Affairs Select Committee, Session
2006‑07, Foreign
Policy Aspects of
the Detention
of Naval Personnel by the Islamic Republic of Iran,
HC 880.
378
eGram
12813/07 Baghdad to FCO London, 28 March 2007, ‘Iraq: attempted
assassination of Deputy
Prime
Minister Zawbaie’.
379
US
Department of State Biography, Ryan C Crocker.
380
Minute
McDonald to Lyall Grant, 30 March 2007, ‘Iraq/US Presidential
Election’.
381
Minute
[Deputy Chief of Assessments Staff] to McDonald, 27 March 2007,
‘Iraq: Reconciliation’.
132