10.3 |
Reconstruction: oil, commercial interests, debt relief, asylum and
stabilisation policy
554.
Sections 1.1
and 1.2 describe the increasing challenges from 1999 to the
US/UK
policy for
the containment of Iraq.
555.
In January
2001, the 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.317
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 EU.
556.
From 20
September 2002, the Cabinet Office-led Ad Hoc Group on Iraq
(AHGI)
co-ordinated
all non-military cross-government work on post-conflict issues. The
focus
of the
AHGI’s work was a series of analytical papers by the FCO and other
departments
on the
post-conflict administration and reconstruction of Iraq, and the
possible
consequences
of conflict for the UK.
557.
The AHGI held
its first meeting on 20 September.318
Mr Jim
Drummond, Assistant
Head of the
Cabinet Office Overseas and Defence Secretariat (OD Sec), wrote
to
Mr Desmond
Bowen, Deputy Head of OD Sec, the day before, suggesting issues
for
discussion
and proposing departmental responsibilities for those
issues.
558.
Neither
Mr Drummond’s minute to Mr Bowen nor the record of the 20
September
AHGI
meeting indicated that work was being or should be undertaken on
promoting UK
commercial
interests in a post-conflict Iraq.319
317
Paper FCO,
January 2001, ‘Iraq: A fresh look at UK interests’.
318
Minute
Drummond to Bowen, 19 September 2002, ‘Ad Hoc Group on Iraq
(AHGI)’.
319
Minute
Drummond to Bowen, 19 September 2002, ‘Ad Hoc Group on Iraq
(AHGI)’; Minute Drummond
to Manning,
23 September 2002, ‘Ad Hoc Group on Iraq’.
457