Briefing from the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman on: Iraq/WMD and Middle East.
Iraq/WMD
Asked if the Prime Minister had received a letter YET from Charles Kennedy today in which he had called for an independent inquiry headed by a senior judge, the Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (PMOS) said he hadn’t seen the letter. However, our position on inquiries had not changed. The issue was being looked at by the ISC which the Prime Minister believed was the right way for things to be taken forward. Asked when the ISC was due to report, the PMOS said that the timetable was for the Committee to set out. He agreed with journalists that, as he understood it, it was unlikely to report before September.
Asked if the Government had ruled out categorically the prospect of an independent inquiry given the Foreign Secretary had appeared to rule out a judicial inquiry this morning, the PMOS repeated that the position remained as set out. There were no plans for any further inquiries other than the ones which people already knew about.
Questioned about Jack Straw’s claim this morning that evidence of WMD from 1992 had been dug up in the garden of an Iraqi scientist, the PMOS said that as the Prime Minister had underlined today, we believed that the Coalition had done the right thing for the right reasons. As every day went by, more and more evidence came to light of the atrocities which Saddam had visited on his people. There were big challenges ahead, but the situation inside Iraq was gradually improving. For example, the Iraqi Governing Council had been established over the weekend, which was a significant step forward. The Iraq Survey Group (ISG) had only just started its programme of work to find WMD. As the Prime Minister had said repeatedly, it was important for that process to be allowed time to progress. Once that work was finished, we would bring forward the evidence so that people could make their own judgements. We acknowledged the existence of a vacuum in the intervening period which allowed people to put forward all kinds of speculation or to broadcast all sorts of false stories to fill the gap as they wished. In the end, however, it was important to await the conclusions of the ISG. We could then have a discussion based on fact, not speculation.
Asked if the UN would need to verify independently anything which the ISG found given the fact that the ISG was seen by some as a UK-US force, the PMOS acknowledged that there were issues relating to verification. He pointed out that this was one of the issues raised in the Oil-for-Food Security Council Resolution 1483 which itself had spoken about independent verification in the event of finds.
Middle East
Asked if the Prime Minister would use his meeting this evening with Prime Minister Sharon of Israel to reiterate Jack Straw’s message that we would not accept any demand to sideline Yasser Arafat, the PMOS said that as a result of the Palestinian conference which the UK had held earlier this year, we had helped to put in place reforms to the Palestinian Authority, which had enabled interlocutors to come forward to whom both the US and the Israelis felt they could talk. It was that step which had contributed to the publication of the roadmap and for a process of dialogue to begin. No one was saying that there weren’t significant challenges which lay ahead. But it was clear from the American discussions with the parties who they were engaging with, and similarly with the Israelis - Abu Mazen. Pressed as to whether we would maintain contact with Mr Arafat when we felt it appropriate to do so, the PMOS said that we had certainly done so in the past.
Asked if we felt it appropriate for Mr Sharon to be making such demands when the purpose of his visit was to mend fences, the PMOS said that we were approaching the issue in the way we believed the Israeli Government was approaching it - in a constructive spirit that was looking at how the process could be moved forward. No one was pretending that there weren’t differences of view on certain issues. There were, some of which had been well documented in the past. However, there was no doubt that we were significantly further forward than we had been when both Prime Ministers had last met. Tonight’s dinner should be seen as an opportunity for the two to sit down and discuss how we could move forward, not focus in on some of the difficulties of the past.
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