Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq.
Iraq
The Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) updated journalists on the current state of play in the light of events during the course of the day.
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK’s Ambassador to the UN, had said today that the diplomatic efforts had come to an end and that it had not been possible to find agreement at the Security Council.
The Leader of the House had met the Prime Minister before Cabinet and had resigned from the Government. He would be making a personal Statement in the House later this evening. Mr Cook had made his position clear to the Prime Minister before the weekend and the nature of his departure from Government had been very amicable on both sides.
The PMOS said that we were expecting a Statement from Jack Straw later this evening after 7pm, which would be followed by a short Business Statement to be delivered by Ben Bradshaw. He could not be specific about times. As the Deputy Prime Minister had outlined in his statement in Downing Street shortly after the Cabinet meeting this afternoon, the Prime Minister was expected to lead the debate in the House tomorrow, focussing on why he believed that the UK should take part in military action against Iraq if it was necessary. He would ask the Commons to support British forces in that action, should it be necessary, before it took place. It went without saying that he believed very firmly that the UK should uphold the authority of the UN and Resolution 1441. The motion would be published later today.
The PMOS said that the Prime Minister believed that there had been wide acceptance of the six tests to assess and judge Saddam’s compliance, and that both the tests themselves and the idea for them had found a degree of support. Indeed, were we where we had been a week ago, he believed that the proposals would have received support at the UN. However, that was before last Monday when the French Government had declared that they would veto any Resolution whatever the circumstances - essentially, any Resolution with an ultimatum. After that, the situation had become very difficult. Other Security Council members had asked - not unreasonably - what the point was of supporting anything if it was going to be vetoed in any event.
The Prime Minister had underlined that Saddam was being given a final opportunity to go into exile. He had also said that he would go to the House of Commons to ask for support for military action should that action be necessary. He had emphasised the significance of the announcement by President Bush last Friday following the publication of the roadmap for peace in the Middle East. He had stressed that the reconstruction of Iraq would happen under a UN mandate.
The Prime Minister also believed that an impasse was an impasse and that the block was not conditional, but absolute. There might have been some give on the issue of time, but not on the issue of an ultimatum. It appeared that were Saddam to fail the tests, and the inevitability of military action should that happen, was a leap too far for some people to make.
The Foreign Secretary had today set out the reasons as to why we were where we were today, and had also explained the cause for the impasse. There had been a lot of recognition for Sir Jeremy Greenstock’s endeavours at the Security Council. He had done an absolutely fantastic job in what were clearly very difficult circumstances. The Foreign Security had remarked that the "whatever the circumstances veto" was extraordinary. The impasse was huge because some people believed that there should be no deadline in relation to Iraqi compliance.
Questioned as to whether Clare Short had indicated whether she was going to resign, the PMOS said that although he had not seen it, he had been told that DfID had put out a Statement saying that Ms Short would be considering her position overnight. He declined to go into further detail. Questioned as to whether Ms Short had had a meeting with the Prime Minister prior to Cabinet, the PMOS said that the Prime Minister had had face-to-face conversations with a number of Cabinet colleagues during the course of the day.
Questioned as to when a replacement for Robin Cook would be announced, the PMOS said that an announcement would be made in due course. He confirmed it would not be today but couldn’t say when it might be. Asked if he could confirm reports that Mr Cook had been offered a Europe-related job, the PMOS said no. Everyone understood and respected the fact that these were big issues. Equally, there was a recognition that Saddam Hussein had been flouting the will of the international community for twelve years, that the threat of WMD was real, that the credibility of the UN was on the line in terms of its Resolutions meaning what they said and that we, as a Government, had to face up to what were clearly difficult decisions.
Asked if any Cabinet Minister had offered anything less than absolute ‘rock solid’ support for the Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary’s position, the PMOS said that there was very strong support for the position which the Government had adopted and the efforts which had been undertaken to try to find a way forward. Equally, there had been a recognition that the reason why the diplomatic efforts to find a second Resolution had not born fruit was because of the intransigence of the French Government. That particular view had been reflected by a number of Ministers who had contributed to the discussion. It was clear that Ministers understood the enormity of the issues which were being discussed and the gravity of the situation.
Asked about the timescale for military action, the PMOS said that we were focussed in the main on an assessment of the situation following the announcement today that the diplomatic discussions had ended. There hadn’t been a military discussion, although Ministers - not unreasonably - had talked about the importance of dealing with any post-conflict scenario.
Asked for further details about the Prime Minister’s phonecall with President Bush earlier today, the PMOS said that it had been a fifteen-minute conversation which had taken place just before 1pm (GMT). Its purpose had been to take stock of where we were.
Asked repeatedly when people would know what the next stage in the process would be, the PMOS said that President Bush would be making an address later tonight, as the White House had announced. Jack Straw would speak in the House tomorrow to update MPs on how we had arrived at the current situation in relation to the diplomacy. People had to be patient and take things one step at a time. Asked to rule out the possibility of military action before the Prime Minister addressed the House tomorrow, the PMOS said that he did not expect tomorrow’s debate to take place against a military backdrop of that nature.
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