LONDON – BRITAIN’S invasion of Iraq in 2003 was illegal, the former chief legal advisor to the foreign ministry told a public inquiry into the war Tuesday, three days before ex-prime minister Tony Blair appears.

‘I considered that the use of force against Iraq in March 2003 was contrary to international law,’ Michael Wood, legal advisor to the Foreign Office between 1999 and 2006, wrote in a submission to the Chilcot inquiry in London.

‘In my opinion, that use of force had not been authorised by the Security Council, and had no other legal basis in international law.’

The focus of the inquiry has sharpened ahead of the appearance of Blair, who took Britain into the war alongside then US president George W. Bush despite strong opposition at home and abroad. Blair justified the invasion on Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s continued defiance of United Nations Security Council resolutions governing his possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).

His chief legal advisor, attorney general Peter Goldsmith, gave the green light on the eve of the March 2003 invasion, saying that UN resolution 1441 passed in November 2002 provided a base for military action.

However, Wood told the inquiry that 1441 made clear that it was up to the UN Security Council to decide whether Saddam had complied with their demands, not individual states like Britain – and no such decision had been made. Wood said he challenged the government’s view in January 2003, after then foreign secretary Jack Straw told the US-vice president Dick Cheney that it would be ‘ok’ if no second UN resolution was obtained. — AFP

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