Abandoning his usual diplomatic language, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, Britain's representative to the UN in the runup to the Iraq war last year, went much further than the prime minister to declare that Britain had been "wrong" to claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons.
Speaking on BBC TV, Greenstock said: "There's no doubt that the stockpiles that we feared might be there are not there."
His remarks are particularly timely because they come as ministers brace themselves for the publication of Lord Butler's report into the intelligence failures in the runup to war. Peter Hain, the leader of the Commons, underlined ministerial nerves on Sunday, when he said that the Butler report should not lead to a "witchhunt".
Greenstock, who has said he had to work hard to persuade himself of the merits of the Iraq invasion while he served as Britain's representative to the UN, said the prime minister's decision to go to war was "understandable" because the intelligence about Iraq's banned weapons was "compelling."
"It's only, again with hindsight, when we saw that probably the Iraqis were cheating Saddam as well as misleading us, that the evidence is just not there. But the reason for doing this, through the UN resolutions and from intelligence assessments, were actually quite compelling. We were wrong on the stockpiles, we were right about the intention," he said.
Greenstock's remarks highlight the dangers for ministers and Britain's spymasters as they brace themselves for highly damaging criticism in the Butler report which will be published on July 14.
Lord Butler, the former cabinet secretary, is expected to comment sharply on the way that John Scarlett, chairman of Whitehall's joint intelligence committee (JIC) interpreted secret information supplied by MI6.
Greenstock made clear that the fallout from the Iraq war will rumble on when he blamed the wave of terrorist attacks in Iraq on Washington.
In a sign of the Foreign Office's distaste for the Iraq enterprise, the retired diplomat criticized the US administration for accepting the "wrong analysis" from the discredited Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi, who played down the threat of insurgency.
Asked on BBC TV whether he was surprised by the postwar terrorist attacks, Greenstock said: "Some of us were, some of us weren't. There were different analyses and those making the decisions, which is Washington, chose the wrong analysis. They were influenced by Ahmed Chalabi who wanted the thing to happen and therefore wanted to make it seem more easy."
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS