Downing Street Says

Asked if the Prime Minister was intending to go to the UN to push the case for the draft Resolution, the Prime Minister’s Spokesman (PMS) said that as her colleague had told journalists yesterday in the light of an Evening Standard report, we did not recognise the scenario. There was nothing in the diary. Put to her that the report had appeared in another paper this morning, the PMS said that might be the case, but the repetition of something we had denied did not make it any truer or more accurate. Asked what she meant by the word ‘scenario’, the PMS said she was merely repeating what her colleague had told journalists yesterday. She was not going to get hung up on semantics and nor should they.

Asked if the letter-writing process between the UN, the Coalition and the Iraqi Government on the issue of the multi-national force would take place before or after an agreement on the Resolution was reached, the PMS said that she was not familiar with the precise detail of the process. As she understood it, Lakhdar Brahimi was currently in Iraq and had indicated that he was intending to provide a list of names for the Interim Government at the end of this month. At this stage, we did not believe it would be helpful to pre-empt his conclusions.

Asked about the Prime Minister’s meeting with the French Finance Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, today and whether French concerns about the UN Resolution had been discussed, the PMS said that she had not received a readout from the meeting as it was still going on as she had left to attend this afternoon’s press briefing. As she understood it, the meeting was perfectly routine and there had been no plans to discuss the issue of the UN Resolution. She pointed out that Mr Sarkozy had also met the Chancellor earlier today. Asked if it was usual for the Prime Minister to meet overseas Finance Ministers, the PMS said yes. Asked if the Prime Minister had been in contact with President Chirac to discuss the Resolution, the PMS said not as far as she was aware.

Asked if the US, like the UK, would accept the fact that the Iraqi Interim Government would have a veto over ‘Falluja-like actions’ after 30 June, the PMS said that she was not a spokesman for the US Administration. The Prime Minister had set out Britain’s position clearly in his press conference this morning. Put to her that if the US decided to adopt a different position to the UK then that would be a recipe for chaos, the PMS said that she was not suggesting there was any difference in opinion. She was simply making the point that, as the Prime Minister of Britain, the Prime Minister had been speaking about British troops this morning. Following that logic, it would be up to President Bush to speak about US troops. Asked if she was indicating that the assurance the Prime Minister had given today in relation to Falluja applied only to British troops, the PMS said she had not been suggesting anything of the sort. She had simply been the making the point that the Prime Minister had been speaking about British troops because he was the Prime Minister of Britain. As he had said this morning, “If there is a political decision as to whether you go into a place like Falluja in a particular way, that has to be done with the consent of the Iraqi Government and the final political control remains with the Iraqi government. Now that is what the transfer of sovereignty means”. She added that she was not aware there was any difference of opinion amongst the members of the Coalition about this matter. Asked if the Prime Minister had said what he had said this morning in the full knowledge that this was a position agreed by both the UK and the US, the PMS repeated that she was not suggesting there were any differences between the British and American positions on this issue. She had merely been pointing out that the British Prime Minister had been speaking about British forces, as you would expect. Put to her that this qualifying statement changed the meaning of the Prime Minister’s response to questions about the Iraqi Government’s veto over the actions of a multi-national force, the PMS said that she was not changing, contradicting, or backtracking on, what the Prime Minister had said this morning. Put to her that it was ludicrous for the Prime Minister to say one thing and his spokesman to say another, the PMS said she was doing nothing of the kind. Journalists could check the transcript of the press conference to see that for themselves.

Asked the definition of a ‘Falluja-like’ incident, the PMS said that discussions to mount a similar large-scale operation after 30 June would require discussions between the multi-national force and the Interim Government before any action was taken. If the Interim Government did not want such an operation to take place, we would abide by their decision.

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» Tuesday, May 25, 2004

Iraq

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