Foreign policy adviser tells inquiry into war that there was no secret deal on military action
Blair ‘was committed to diplomacy’ in dealing with Iraq
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Tony Blair was committed throughout the Iraq crisis to achieving an international solution through the United Nations, his key foreign policy adviser said yesterday.
Giving evidence to the official Iraq inquiry, Sir David Manning denied Mr Blair and George Bush had secretly agreed on military action during talks at the president’s Texas ranch 11 months before the invasion in March 2003.
He said that once it was clear that diplomatic efforts to persuade Saddam Hussein to give up his weapons of mass destruction had failed, Mr Blair believed he had given a commitment to join the US in military action.
“The prime minister concluded that he had always said that if we had exhausted the diplomatic route, we would take part in military action,” Sir David said.
Sir David said Mr Bush had first raised the issue of Iraq with Mr Blair in a telephone call just three days after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
The president said he thought there was evidence of a link between Saddam and al Qaida, although Mr Blair insisted it would have to be “very compelling” to justify any action against Iraq.
However, by the time Mr Blair met Mr Bush at his ranch at Crawford in April 2002, it was clear Iraq would be on the agenda.
The two leaders dined alone on the first night before meeting more formally the next day with their senior officials, including Sir David and US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
Sir David said Mr Bush had briefed them on their discussions the night before.
“He told us that there was no war plan for Iraq but he had set up a small cell at Central Command in Florida to do some planning and to think through the various options,” he said.
Last week Sir Christopher Meyer, then Britain’s ambassador to the US, told the inquiry that after the meeting there had been a hardening of Mr Blair’s position on Iraq and he suggested the two leaders had made a pact “signed in blood”.
However, Sir David insisted that Britain’s policy remained the disarmament of Saddam, not regime change.
Sir David said Mr Blair’s unwillingness to authorise active military planning had caused consternation in the Ministry of Defence, amid concerns that they would struggle to deploy in time.
Sir David was critical of the lack of planning for post-war in the United States, dismissing the idea that the Iraqis would be able to take control themselves as the “neo-con wishful thinking thesis”.
“The American military thought that they were fighting a war and when that war was over, they were expecting to go home and they were not in the mode of peacekeeping or policing,” he said.
The inquiry continues.
