**Failed efforts to resolve the crisis through the United Nations are to be examined by the war Iraq inquiry as a former top diplomat gives evidence.**Ex-UN ambassador Sir Jeremy Greenstock was centre stage in UK-led efforts to negotiate a second UN resolution seen to directly authorise military action.
The move was vetoed by France and Russia, leading critics to claim the subsequent invasion was illegal.
The inquiry is looking at the UK’s role in Iraq between 2001 and 2009.
‘Heavyweight figure’
During the first few weeks inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot and his four colleagues are focusing on policy in the build-up to the 2003 invasion.
They heard on Thursday that Tony Blair’s view on regime change in Iraq “tightened” after a private meeting with President Bush in 2002.
Sir Christopher Meyer, the UK’s former ambassador to the US, also said the rapid military build-up to the invasion in March 2003 had “short-circuited” the process of weapons inspections supported by the UN.
INQUIRY TIMELINE
- November-December: Former top civil servants, spy chiefs, diplomats and military commanders to give evidence
- January-February 2010: Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and other politicians expected to appear before the panel
- March 2010: Inquiry expected to adjourn ahead of the general election campaign
- July-August 2010: Inquiry expected to resume
- Report set to be published in late 2010 or early 2011
Iraq inquiry: Day-by-day timeline](http://www.paklinks.com/2/low/uk_news/politics/8378559.stm)
The ex-diplomat said officials had been left “scrabbling” for evidence of WMD as US troops prepared for invasion.
He also said, as early as March 2002, the UK was urging President Bush to “go down the UN route” to build an international coalition if it proposed to oust Saddam Hussein.
Weapons inspectors returned to Iraq in early 2003 after the UN Security Council passed resolution 1441 the previous November, the passage of which Sir Jeremy was heavily involved in.
This resolution gave Saddam Hussein a “final opportunity” to declare his weapons stockpile and co-operate with inspectors or face serious consequences.
The US and UK governments cited his failure to comply with this resolution as justification for the invasion.
The BBC’s World Affairs Correspondent Peter Biles said Sir Jeremy was a “heavyweight” figure who would be expected to shed light on what the UK and its allies knew about Iraq’s true military threat.
His views on post-war planning will also be eagerly awaited as Sir Jeremy was deputy of the heavily criticised Coalition Provisional Authority which ran Iraq in the months after the war.
He has since been critical about how post-war Iraq was administered and was forced to pull a memoir of the period in 2005 in the face of government opposition.
On Thursday, Sir Christopher Meyer described planning for an Iraq without Saddam Hussein as a “black hole” and that basic functions, such as maintaining law and order, had been neglected.
Weapons focus
The inquiry has so far concentrated on UK-US relations in the run-up to war and the UK’s assessment of Iraq’s military threat.
A senior Foreign Office official revealed on Wednesday that it had received reports just days before the invasion that Saddam Hussein may not be able to use chemical weapons as they had been “disassembled”.
WITNESSES ON FRIDAY
Sir Jeremy Greenstock, UK Permanent Representative to the UN 1997-2003
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But Sir William Ehrman told the inquiry these reports “contradicted” earlier intelligence and did not “invalidate” the fact that Iraq was believed to possess weapons of mass destruction.
He told the inquiry that he was “surprised” that no weapons of mass destruction were ultimately ever found in Iraq.
The Iraq inquiry, set up by Prime Minister Gordon Brown in July, is due to report by the end of 2010.
Mr Brown and his predecessor Tony Blair are expected to be among future witnesses along with former senior advisers and military figures.