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Iraq war needed new UN resolution, says UK's former top diplomat

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, June 30, IRNA -- Britain’s top diplomat during the 2003 invasion of Iraq admitted Wednesday that he was opposed to the UK government’s decision to join the US-led war.

“There was an option not to take part in it. That was an option that some of us thought was the right option, that we should not take part in the conflict itself after we had not got the second (UN) resolution,” former head of the diplomatic service Lord Jay said.

Giving evidence to the Iraq Inquiry in London, he said he felt "very uncomfortable" about the UK joining the invasion without a second UN resolution, which he described as "necessary".

"It seemed to me to take a step as important as going to war without the support of the international community was something I would have preferred not to have done," the former permanent under-secretary of state at the Foreign Office said.

The UK and US abandoned efforts to get a UN resolution explicitly authorising military action in early 2003 in the face of opposition from France and Russia.

Giving evidence to the inquiry on Monday, former British Ambassador to Paris Sir John Holmes contradicted outright claims made by the Blair government that blamed former French president Jacques Chirac for scuppering any chance of a clear UN mandate.

One of the main issue being considered by the inquiry, set up last year to identify lessons about decisions taken to go to war, the conduct of the military campaign and the aftermath, is the legal case for the Iraq invasion.

Jay admitted that there were “strongly held views” among Foreign Office lawyers about the legality of the war, but said he did not "dissent" from the attorney general's last-minute advice to the government that claimed the invasion was lawful.

"I had no reason to dissent from the judgement. He was the government's legal adviser. It was for him to make that judgement," he said.

The inquiry, which started last year, is hoping to produce its report around the end of 2010.

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End News / IRNA / News Code 1205490