Iraq inquiry: Britain rejected regime change as illegal in 2001

[Turborama]

Source: Telegraph (UK)

British officials discussed toppling Saddam Hussein in 2001 but rejected a policy of “regime change” as illegal under international law, the Iraq war inquiry has heard.

On its opening day of public hearings, Sir John Chilcot’s public inquiry into the invasion heard that British diplomats heard the “drumbeat” of war emanating from Washington even before the September 11 terrorist attacks.

=snip=

Inside, the inquiry’s questioning focussed on British policy towards Iraq in 2001, the year George W Bush became US president.

Sir William Patey, head of Middle East policy at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office at the time, told the inquiry that he wrote a briefing paper on the options for Iraqi policy. “We had at the end the regime-change option,” he said, “We dismissed that at the time as having no basis in law.”

=snip=

The inquiry heard that in 2001, the settled view of the UK government was that attacking Iraq would have been illegal under international law.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/6645270/Iraq-inquiry-Britain-rejected-regime-change-as-illegal-in-2001.html

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And this is just day one.

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1. K&R