Straw: Judgements on Saddam were correct
The Foreign Secretary has said that he believes the Government acted correctly over Iraq.
In a statement to MPs in the Commons this afternoon, Jack Straw said that whilst he accepted that much of the intelligence judgements were based on was wrong, he did “not accept, even with hindsight, that we were wrong to act as we did in the circumstances which we faced at the time”.
Mr Straw’s statement to MPs came on the back of the Iraq Survey Group’s report, which concluded that Iraq did not have any WMD prior to the outbreak of war and the tragic death of UK hostage Ken Bigley.
The Foreign Secretary said that the ISG report showed that Saddam Hussein has operated “a sophisticated and systematic” campaign to “bring down the United Nations sanctions regime and re-constitute his weapons programmes”.
He detailed obstructions of the weapons inspectors by Saddam Hussein, saying it is “hard to believe that any regime could behave in so self-destructive a manner as to pretend it had forbidden weaponry, when in fact it hadn’t” and that “in the circumstances, deciding to give Saddam the benefit of the doubt would have required a huge leap of faith.”
Mr Straw added, “Although we can now see that some of the intelligence was wrong, I continue to believe the judgements we made and the actions we took were right”.
He stressed that Iraq and its politicians are committed to ensuring that elections go ahead as planned in January, and committed the UK to supporting the democratic process in Iraq.
The Liberal Democrats, however, have called on the Prime Minister to make a personal statement on the ISG report. Their leader, Charles Kennedy, has written to Mr Blair calling for him to answer questions in the House. Mr Kennedy writes: “This country went to war because we were told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which were a threat. The Iraq Survey Group has now proved this was not the case and that the policy of containment had worked.
“When I have asked the Prime Minister about WMD in Iraq he has avoided answering and told me to wait for the Iraq Survey Group report.
“The ISG report shows beyond doubt that we went to war in Iraq on a false premise. The Prime Minister must not avoid these questions any longer and he should not bypass Parliament. He should make a statement and open himself up to democratic scrutiny.”
