Downing Street Says » Iraq/Peter Mandelson

» Thursday, October 14, 2004

Iraq/Peter Mandelson

Asked if the Prime Minister agreed with Peter Mandelson’s comment that any future conflict should be legitimised by the international community, the PMOS reminded journalists that Mr Mandelson was no longer a member of the British Government and, in his new role as European Commissioner, spoke for himself. As we had made clear yesterday, we would of course have preferred to have obtained a second UN Resolution on Iraq and for the UN to have been part of the response to Saddam Hussein. Indeed, the reason why we had put so much effort into obtaining Resolution 1441 was precisely because we had wanted the UN to be involved in Iraq. As we had made clear at the time, we had wanted to see the UN involved in addressing the issue rather than avoiding it. It was therefore unfortunate, in our view, that we had been unable to obtain a second UN Resolution. Asked if we would take the same action in the future were the UN again to refuse to get involved in a similar issue, the PMOS said he did not think it would be helpful to get drawn into a hypothetical discussion about such matters. All he would point out was that the UN was now playing a role in Iraq, for example by assisting in the preparations for the elections next year, the process of which, according to a report which had been published today, was well under way. The role the UN had played in the Afghanistan elections had also been very important and should not be under-estimated.

1 Comment »

See how quickly a European Commissioner "goes native" – If you’re PM you can’t even rely on your best friends to back you up once they’re out of the No10 loop.
Comment by Red Robbo — 15 Oct 2004 on 12:15 pm | Link

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