The Report
of the Iraq Inquiry
62.
On a number of
occasions, UK and US aircraft enforcing the NFZs targeted
Iraqi
military
assets. The legal basis for those attacks derived from the right to
self-defence.
The MOD
paper on NFZs states:
“… it
remained the UK’s position that it was engaged in a lawful activity
in monitoring
the NFZs
and if coalition forces were attacked or under imminent threat of
attack,
they were
entitled to defend themselves. So UK forces participating in the
No
Fly Zones
were permitted to attack targets which were or contributed to
actual or
imminent
threat of attack. This was based on the inherent right of
self-defence.”
63.
Activity in
the NFZs increased over time and, in response to the threat from
Iraq,
eventually
extended to attacks on Iraqi air defence sites outside the Zones.
Incidents
increased
significantly after Operation Desert Fox. Concerns about the
continued legality
of the NFZs
in 2000 and 2001 are addressed in Section 1.2.
64.
Resolution 687
confirmed the prohibition on the sale or supply to Iraq of
arms
and related
materiel of all types, and called on all States to maintain
national controls
to ensure
compliance. In his statement on 15 April 1991, Mr Hurd
recorded that
the UK’s
proposal was for “a strict arms embargo against Iraq to remain in
force as
long as
Saddam Hussein is in power”.18
The
principle of the embargo was relatively
uncontroversial,
but the control of items which had “dual use” (a civilian as well
as a
military
use) did create difficulties. Various arrangements were made,
including resolution
1051 (1996)
adopted on 27 March 1996; but there were increasing
disagreements.
65.
Resolution 687
provided the framework for the economic sanctions imposed
on
Iraq. It
permitted the import of medicines, of food and of other supplies
for essential
civilian
needs.
66.
By the summer
of 1991, concern about the “nutritional and health situation”
of
the Iraqi
civilian population and the risk of a further deterioration led to
the adoption
of
resolution 706 (1991) on 15 August. Acting under Chapter VII
of the UN Charter, it
authorised
States to permit the import of Iraqi petroleum and petroleum
products, for an
initial
period of six months, up to a defined limit of US$1.6bn. Payment
for the purchases
would be
held in an escrow account to be established by the UN
Secretary-General
“exclusively
to meet the purposes” of resolution 706. They were: the full cost
of the
UN carrying
out the tasks authorised by section C of resolution 687
(inspections and
monitoring)
and facilitating the return of all Kurdish property seized by Iraq;
half the
costs of
the Iraq-Kuwait Boundary Demarcation Commission; the purchase of
foodstuffs,
medicines
and materials and supplies for essential civilian needs; and the
costs of
implementing
resolution 706 and other necessary humanitarian activity in
Iraq.
18
House of
Commons, Official
Report,
15 April 1991, column 21.
36