Bush wanted to go beyond Iraq … to Pak, says book

Two months before the invasion of Iraq, US President George W. Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he “wanted to go beyond...

Two months before the invasion of Iraq, US President George W. Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he “wanted to go beyond Iraq in dealing with WMD proliferation, mentioning in particular Saudi Arabia, Iran, North Korea and Pakistan,” according to notes taken by a Blair advisers, cited in a new book.

Bush’s comment, in a telephone conversation on January 30, 2003, could be significant because it appeared to add Saudi Arabia and Pakistan—both close US allies—to a list that previously had included public mentions only of Iraq, Iran and North Korea.

The comment is reported in an American edition of Lawless World, by Philippe Sands, a professor at University College, London. The notes taken by Blair’s then private secretary Matthew Rycroft and addressed to Simon McDonald, then principal private secretary to Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw.

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The document is revealing in other ways not described in the book. It records a conversation between the leaders a day before they met in Washington, and shows that they discussed whether to seek a second United Nations resolution imposing an ultimatum on Iraq before beginning any military action.

Bush was reported to have agreed with Blair that “it made sense to try for a second resolution, which he would love to have”. But Mr. Bush was also said to be “worried about Saddam playing tricks” and the possibility that Hans Blix, the top UN weapons inspector, would report “that Saddam was beginning to cooperate”. —NYT

EXCLUSIVE: EC brings in feature to check misuse of identity to seek voter list deletions

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