Downing Street Says » Iraq Inquiry

Asked whether any inquiry would be a Privy Council or behind closed doors inquiry as opposed to a public inquiry, the PMS said that he recognised that there were going to be a lot of people wanting further details on the terms of reference and the nature of any inquiry into the Iraq War. As we had said repeatedly, we were not going to open that question now.

David Miliband had said that we would begin that process after July 31st. Asked for guidance on timing, the PMS said that as soon as practicable was pretty clear. There were a range of considerations that would need to be taken into account and that was what David Miliband and others would be doing after the troops had been withdrawn in July.

Asked if it would be months after the withdrawal, the PMS replied that he would not put a timeframe on it, it would be as soon as was practicable. Asked repeatedly what the range of considerations would be, the PMS said it would include things like ongoing operations in Iraq and the availability of resources to commit to an investigation, but he would not start defining what the conditions would be that would lead people to make a judgement on how long practicable actually was.

Put that the Foreign Secretary had spoken warmly about the prospect of a private inquiry and would the Prime Minister share that view, the PMS said that that was an attempt to draw him in to what the nature of the inquiry would be and as he had said he would not get into that at this stage. Asked why the Foreign Secretary had talked about this, the PMS said that that was another attempt to draw him into what the nature of an inquiry would be. The Foreign Secretary chose his own words and the PMS would not speculate at this stage. That was a question that would rightly wait until combat troops had returned from Iraq and the Foreign Secretary had made clear that further consideration would be given to this after the 31st July.

Asked if the prospect of a public inquiry was still on the table, the PMS repeated that he would not start getting into a discussion of the nature of an inquiry into the Iraq war, its terms of reference or any other detail. The Foreign Secretary had set out the Government s position.

Asked repeatedly to clarify what he meant by the availability of resources in his range of considerations, the PMS said that an inquiry of this nature into the Iraq war would draw on resources from a variety of Government departments, from the armed forces and other areas. When the Foreign Secretary agreed that we would carry out an inquiry as soon as was practicable, that meant as soon as those requirements could be met.

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» Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Iraq Inquiry

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