1.1 | UK
Iraq strategy 1990 to 2000
give the US
and UK time to attack ground forces before they could attack
Kuwait.21
The US and other
allies had forces stationed in countries in the region, in
particular
Kuwait,
Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Turkey, which could respond at short
notice,
should a threat
emerge.
78.
Following
Iraq’s deployment of 80,000 troops towards the border with Kuwait
in
October
1994, the US and UK rapidly deployed forces to Kuwait. The Security
Council
adopted
resolution 949 (1994), and Iraqi forces withdrew north of the 32nd
parallel.
The US
increased its military personnel based in Saudi Arabia from under
1,000 to
around
7,000.
79.
The term
“weapons of mass destruction” originated as an umbrella
concept
covering
weapons with the capability to cause indiscriminate loss of life
and wide-scale
destruction.22
All
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons are frequently
characterised
as weapons
of mass destruction, and radiological devices have been
included
more recently.
80.
During the
1970s and 1980s, Iraq had active chemical, biological, nuclear,
and
missile
programmes. It used chemical weapons against Iranian forces during
the
Iran‑Iraq
War and against Iraqi Kurds in Halabja in March 1988.
81.
After 1998,
Iraq continued to develop its military capability, including
programmes
to develop
chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, and the means for their
delivery
including
ballistic missiles.
82.
Some Western
firms were implicated in supplying material to Iraq, as Lord
Justice
Scott set
out in the Report of
the Inquiry into the Export of Defence Equipment and
Dual-
Use Goods to
Iraq and Related Prosecutions published in
1996.
83.
In March 1990,
an attempt to smuggle nuclear-weapons-related components
was
discovered
at Heathrow Airport.
21
Public
hearing, 24 November 2009, pages 49-50.
22
The first
official definition was provided by the UN Commission for
Conventional Armaments in
1948 which
defined weapons of mass destruction as “atomic explosive devices,
radioactive material
weapons,
lethal chemical and biological weapons, and any weapons developed
in the future which have
characteristics
comparable in destructive effect to those of the atomic bomb or
other weapons mentioned
above”
(S/C.3/32/Rev.1, August 1948). This definition has been used in
successive UN resolutions dealing
with
disarmament.
39