1.1 | UK
Iraq strategy 1990 to 2000
786.
The final
reports of the panels on humanitarian issues and prisoners of war
and
Kuwaiti
property were delivered on 30 March.306
787.
Work began in
the Security Council to follow up the recommendations of
the
three
Amorim panels, but agreement proved elusive. A number of different
approaches
and draft
resolutions were discussed informally over the following months and
it was
eventually
decided that the subject should be remitted to the P5, although not
all the
elected
members were happy with that approach.307
788.
Sir Jeremy
Greenstock told the Inquiry:
“Under
initiatives proposed by Canada and Brazil, the Council again
attempted
to complete
a comprehensive review of the degree of Iraqi compliance with
the
relevant
resolutions. This laid the ground for a long negotiation, mostly
between the
Permanent
Members of the Security Council, over the creation of a new
inspection
organisation
for Iraq. The US and UK argued for continuation of the
regime
stemming
from SCR 687, but with tougher measures to ensure co-operation
with
and access
for the inspectors, under the continuing threat of sanctions if
Iraq did not
comply;
while Russia, France and China opposed the continuation of
sanctions, but
were
interested in getting the inspectors back into the
country.”308
789.
In the context
of a visit to the US, for a Summit in Washington to mark the
50th
anniversary
of NATO’s creation and an attempt to persuade the US that ground
forces
were needed
in Kosovo, Mr Blair made a widely publicised speech to the
Economic Club
of Chicago
on 23 April 1999.309
790.
In response to
a request from Mr Jonathan Powell (Mr Blair’s Chief of
Staff),
Sir
Lawrence Freedman submitted ideas for the speech. These were set
out in the
attachment
to Sir Lawrence’s letter to Sir John Chilcot on 18 January
2010.310
791.
Mr Blair
argued that globalisation was not just economic it was also a
political
and
security phenomenon. This meant that problems could only be
addressed by
international
co-operation. New rules were needed for that, and new ways of
organising
international
institutions. The time was right to work in earnest “in a serious
and
sustained
way” on the principles of the doctrine of “international community”
and on the
institutions
that delivered them.
306
UN Security
Council, 30 March 1999, ‘Letter dated 27 March 1999, from
the Chairman of the panels
established
pursuant to the note by the President of the Security Council of
30 January 1999 (S/1999/100)
addressed
to the President of the Security Council’
(S/1999/356).
307
UN Security
Council, ‘4084th Meeting Friday 17 December 1999’
(S/PV.4084).
308
Statement,
November 2009, page 2.
309
Speech,
Blair, Doctrine of
the International Community,
23 April 1999.
310
Paper
Freedman [undated], ‘Chicago Speech: Some
Suggestions’.
173