Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq and Higher Education White Paper.
Iraq
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) drew journalists’ attention to Hans Blix’s comments made today in Brussels which, he said, were noteworthy. Dr Blix had said, "Iraq must do more than they have done so far in order to make this a credible avenue (i.e. the inspections). They presented a declaration of 12,000 pages that did not provide any new evidence and they need to be active, not to use the word proactive, in order to convince the Security Council, through us, that they do not have any weapons of mass destruction". The PMOS pointed out again that, under paragraph 4 of Resolution 1441, there was a requirement on Iraq to comply with and co-operate fully in the implementation of the Resolution. Dr Blix had told the Security Council last week that there were a number of unanswered questions which Iraq had to address. Dr Blix was due to meet the Prime Minister at Chequers tomorrow and would return to Baghdad on Saturday night. The PMOS also took the opportunity to draw journalists’ attention to a comment today by Mark Gwozdacky from the IAEA who had said, "We welcome the fact that pressure has been maintained on Iraq and we would not necessarily be where we are today if it wasn’t for the considerable amount of pressure applied on them".
Asked if he would agree that Saddam Hussein was in breach of Resolution 1441 due to his failure to provide a complete declaration, the PMOS said that it was for the weapons inspectors to report back to the Security Council on this matter after testing it. We had said that the declaration was incomplete. Today, Hans Blix had said that it didn’t provide any new evidence. As we had underlined from the outset of the process, Iraq had to engage in active co-operation. It was not sufficient simply to allow the weapons inspectors access to the country. Iraq had to engage seriously with the team themselves. If Dr Blix was saying that there were unanswered questions, it was clearly important for Iraq to understand that they needed to be answered, not ignored. Questioned as to whether the UK would be allowed to declare unilaterally that Iraq was in breach of 1441, the PMOS said that the inspectors would first need to report back to the Security Council in the event of a breach, following which a discussion would take place. Asked if he was saying that the British Government would not make its own judgement, the PMOS pointed out that the UK was a member of the Security Council and, together with the other members, would consider any evidence produced by the weapons inspectors. The PMOS reminded journalists that Hans Blix was due to present a progress report to the Security Council on 27 January. However, although this was an important date, it was not a deadline. Put to him that January 27 was clearly some sort of turning point, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister himself had pointed out in his news conference on Monday that the date was important, although it was not a deadline. Asked if he would accept that the week of 27 January was certainly ’significant’ in the light of Dr Blix’s report, the Prime Minister’s visit to the US and President Bush’s State of the Union Address, the PMOS said he would not deny it was a significant week. However, it was important for people to recognise that we had never imposed arbitrary deadlines relating to the work of the weapons inspectors. The inspection team was now at full strength and was taking its work forward. However, as we had underlined many times, co-operation with the inspectors was about more than simply opening up facilities for them. It was about addressing UNMOVIC’s concerns which related directly to what their predecessor, UNSCOM, had said they were unable to verify on leaving Iraq in 1998. For example, UNSCOM had raised a number of serious questions when reporting back to the Security Council in 1999 about VX nerve gas and warheads. It was therefore entirely appropriate for Hans Blix to decline to play Iraq’s game of hide and seek and to demand that they address the outstanding concerns directly.
Asked to explain the purpose of the Prime Minister’s meeting with Dr Blix tomorrow, the PMOS said that it was an opportunity for Dr Blix, as head of UNMOVIC, to engage in dialogue with the leader of one of the P5. Equally, it was an opportunity for us to hear directly how the inspections were proceeding, to find out whether there were any other ways we could help Dr Blix and his team and to discuss the co-operation between British intelligence and UNMOVIC and how it might be developed further. Asked what sort of assistance we were providing, the PMOS declined to get into a discussion about intelligence issues. The PMOS reminded journalists that, despite all the hindrances and impediments which Saddam Hussein had placed before UNSCOM, UNSCOM had still managed to destroy large quantities of weapons of mass destruction before leaving Iraq. People sometimes seemed to suggest that it was the British Government asserting that Iraq had WMD. In fact, UNSCOM had reported real concerns to the UN on their departure in 1998. There were genuine issues which had to be addressed. It was therefore not unreasonable for international intelligence agencies and UNMOVIC to co-operate so as to ensure the weapons inspectors could do their job properly.
Asked if the Prime Minister was planning to speak to President Bush, President Putin or President Chirac, the PMOS said that he was not aware of any immediate plans to do so, although the Prime Minister spoke to them all on a regular basis.
Higher Education White Paper
Questioned as to when the Higher Education White Paper would be published, the PMOS said that we were expecting it to be published next week. It was currently going through the Cabinet Committee process. Asked if he was implying that it hadn’t yet been finalised, the PMOS said that it was still being fine-tuned.
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