http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Politics/2001-02/sanction200201.shtml
Government was set to ease Iraq sanctions before air raid
By Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor
20 February 2001
Claims that Tony Blair was bounced by the US into launching military strikes
on Baghdad intensified last night after it emerged that the Foreign Office
signalled a relaxation of policy towards Iraq less than 24 hours before the
air strikes.
Brian Wilson, a Foreign Office minister, outlined a new approach on the issue
of sanctions last Thursday, just as the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was
preparing to bomb Iraqi installations, The Independent has learnt.
Details of Mr Wilson's announcement emerged as Downing Street and the MoD
defended the decision to take part in the air strikes despite the
condemnation of many European states. Last night, however, government sources
said they were examining the possibility of "smart sanctions", which would be
more precisely military in their scope, in an effort to defuse criticism from
their European allies.
Mr Wilson indicated in a written parliamentary reply that the Government
would take fresh steps to ensure that humanitarian supplies were getting
through to the country. His reply was claimed by ministerial sources as a
"significant shift" in policy in response to Labour MPs' concern over the
impact of sanctions on Iraqis.
In a written answer to the Plaid Cymru MP Elfyn Llwyd, Mr Wilson said Britain
would work on examples of equipment to combat cancer or food-testing
equipment that had been unnecessarily held up by the UN sanctions committee
from entering Iraq.
"We are prepared to look into the matter and, where appropriate, make
representations bilaterally and in the sanctions committee," Mr Wilson wrote.
Crucially, the minister added: "I am anxious further to refine this process
in any way which is consistent with UN Security Council resolutions and also
the humanitarian interests of the Iraqi people."
Last night, Labour MPs said that the revelation of a shift in policy only
hours before the military action would fuel suspicions that the Foreign
Office was kept in the dark about the bombings. Alan Simpson, MP for
Nottingham South, said: "Here is the great tragedy. Brian Wilson is a bright,
progressive minister who has picked up on the level of backbench unease about
a policy that hasn't worked for its 10 years... His remarks moved us quite
significantly towards recognising that diplomacy is the only way forward. I
feel really saddened that [the] brave step he was trying to take was bombed
out, quite literally, by the military of the US."
Tony Benn, the Labour MP for Chesterfield, said Mr Wilson's approach showed
Britain had been led by the Americans into the action. "I am no apologist for
Saddam Hussein, but we cannot have a situation where sanctions kill another
half million Iraqi children," he said.
The Government denied that the air strikes amounted to an escalation of
aggression against Iraq. Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean, a Defence minister,
told the House of Lords that the threat to Allied planes patrolling the
no-fly zone had intensified this year.
It is understood that Baghdad has obtained a fibre-optic link allowing it to
detect Allied planes from a greater distance than the conventional radar
previously used. This system was among the targets for Friday's raid, which
Lady Symons said had been "successful, with weapons impacting on or very
close to the target". Downing Street said Allied planes had been targeted at
least 22 times last month – more often than in the whole of 2000.
The Labour MP George Galloway visited Baghdad to add to the international
condemnation of the air strikes. Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, and his
French counterpart, Jacques Chirac, spoke yesterday to "underline the
closeness of the positions" in opposition to the air strikes, a Russian
spokesman said.
