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Interview: Iraq war was illegal, confirms Clegg
Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, remains
convinced the war in Iraq was illegal, saying
that he is not going to deny it and that it
is his own view and not that of the Coalition
Government.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Muslim
News on September 3, Clegg also agreed that
any final agreement between Israel and the
Palestinian people needs to include Hamas but
that it is one of the main hurdles to
overcome.
Just returning from a visit to Pakistan, he
said that he found the scale of the
catastrophe very distressing and that he did
not think many people still realise how bad
the situation is from the floods. “My fear is
that we still have the worst to come, because
particularly in the south, the water isn’t
draining away because of the clay ground and
because of the tide coming up in the bay. So
the danger of water borne diseases now taking
hold, particularly affecting the young and
the old is very great,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister again criticised
the world’s response to Pakistan’s worst-ever
flood disaster as “absolutely pitiful” and
said he was “still not sure if the
international community has grasped the
enormity of what’s going.” He said the UK
would need to push “very hard” when he
attends a number of meetings over the next
few weeks about the effects of the disaster,
not least in the UN General Assembly.
But Clegg denied that Prime Minister, David
Cameron’s accusations in India that Pakistan
was exporting terrorism caused the slow
response. “I don’t think you could possible
explain why another country took some time to
provide a donation and explain something in
terms of the bilateral relationship between
England and Pakistan. I think the whole world
took some time to wake up to the enormity of
this,” Clegg said.
He suggested that the initial slow response
was “more to do with the fact that a flood
doesn’t have the same cataclysmic effect on
people watching it on their television
screens as an earthquake or a one off
disaster and particularly because not that
many people were killed at the beginning.”
Before going to Pakistan, Clegg went to
Afghanistan, where he said that the Taliban
should be allowed to join the Government of
Afghanistan. “No insurgency ever in history
has ever been defeated by military means
alone ever. We don’t believe that’s possible,
no-one believes that’s possible. You have to
do two things. You have to apply relentless
military pressure so that the Taliban
leadership, particularly in Afghanistan and
wherever they’re hiding over the border over
in the mountainous regions of Pakistan,
realise there is no military option for them,
they have to pursue non-violent means of
promoting their cause. And then you need to
provide a process by which that non-violent
dialogue can take place,” he told The Muslim
News.
Clegg described it as a “sort of hard and
soft approach” as “exercising military
pressure but providing a political process.”
He denied that the point of going into
Afghanistan was to win the war. “There isn’t
going to be some sort of battle, like a sort
of medieval battle where one side wins. It’s
not going to be like that. What we’re seeking
is to create an environment where Afghanistan
can exercise its own sovereignty as a stable
and increasingly prosperous and peaceful
country. That’s the only objective and that
can’t be done by firing soldiers.” A space
needed to be created “for economic, social
and political development and that’s what
we’re trying to do, we’re very very late, but
we’re finally making progress on the military
front.” He said Britain cannot prevent
terrorist attacks on its streets “unless
Afghanistan state itself is stable and self-
governed. That’s the point, you can’t prevent
Al-Qa’ida from re-infiltrating Afghanistan
and using Afghanistan to launch platform, an
aircraft carrier design, unless Afghanistan
itself is stronger and I have no doubt in my
mind that you can’t insulate Afghanistan from
re-infiltration of Al-Qa’ida with military
means alone. At the end of the day, the only
way you can do that is by building up Afghan
society itself.”
In July, Clegg said that the war in Iraq was
illegal when deputising at Prime Minister’s
Questions, but his officials said that this
was only his view and was not speaking for
the Government. He remained adamant that this
continues to be his view although not of
Cameron and the Conservatives. “We’re in a
coalition government. I’m not going to start
denying my own views. The Government itself
as a whole does not have a view on the
legality of the war. That’s something lawyers
will no doubt be arguing about for a long
time, but unlike my partner in the coalition
government, myself and the Liberal Democrats
are staunchly against the Iraq invasion and
I’m not suddenly going to airbrush that out
of the record, I can’t, that would be very
naïve of me to do that.”
The Lib Dems are also at odds with the Tories
when it declared in its election manifesto to
rule out using military action in the dispute
with Iran, although Clegg decline to repeat
the pledge. “The point now, the priority now,
it’s not the endless speculation about what
might or might not happen in the future but
is to continue to apply very, very strong
international pressure on the Iranian regime.
There is quite a lot of evidence of recent
sanctions of the European Union are having an
effect.”
The Deputy Prime Minister also appears to
differ with the majority of his party over
proposals made by Justice Secretary, Kenneth
Clarke, to amend the law on universal
jurisdiction to prevent Israeli leaders being
arrested on war crimes charges. He suggested
that the Government’s proposal, requiring the
consent of the Director of Public
Prosecution, was “something much better” than
the previous Government wanting the
intervention of the Attorney General. “The
Labour Government want to do something very,
very draconian which is basically to remove
our fine tradition of applying the
universality of human rights, which I’m very
passionate about, to people who are allegedly
abusing human rights, wherever they are,” he
said. “We’re saying, this shouldn’t be in the
hands of politicians and it shouldn’t be in
the hands of the Attorney General to decide
whether the Israeli Foreign Minister or
anyone else can come to the UK. It should be
for the Director of Public Prosecution, not a
political figure to decide whether there’s a
case.”
Labour’s plans were thwarted by 145 MPs
signing an Early Day Motion to Parliament
warning that they would vote against any
change to the law that allows the public to
apply for arrest warrants for suspected war
criminals. Those opposing any amendment
included 53 of the current 62 Lib Dem MPs,
including two who are now cabinet ministers,
Business Secretary, Vince Cable, and Energy
Secretary, Chris Huhne, as well as 11 more
who hold ministerial posts. Since the
elections, 51 Lib Dem MPs have signed a new
EDM declaring that “universal jurisdiction
for human rights abuses is essential as part
of the cause of bringing to justice those who
commit crimes against humanity and (that
they) will oppose any legislation to restrict
this power of UK courts.”
Clegg retained his some of his support for
eventually including Hamas in negotiations
for a Middle East settlement after previously
saying that western leaders must accept their
response to their election had been a
strategic failure. “I agree with you that any
final agreement between Israel and the
Palestinian people needs to incorporate the
West Bank and Gaza and needs to bring
together all parts of the Palestinian
community. At the moment, it’s clearly not
seen possible to have Hamas coming to the
negotiating table. I don’t think Hamas
themselves would want to come. There is a
real problem.”
Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, remains
convinced the war in Iraq was illegal, saying
that he is not going to deny it and that it
is his own view and not that of the Coalition
Government.
In a wide-ranging interview with The Muslim
News on September 3, Clegg also agreed that
any final agreement between Israel and the
Palestinian people needs to include Hamas but
that it is one of the main hurdles to
overcome.
Just returning from a visit to Pakistan, he
said that he found the scale of the
catastrophe very distressing and that he did
not think many people still realise how bad
the situation is from the floods. “My fear is
that we still have the worst to come, because
particularly in the south, the water isn’t
draining away because of the clay ground and
because of the tide coming up in the bay. So
the danger of water borne diseases now taking
hold, particularly affecting the young and
the old is very great,” he said.
The Deputy Prime Minister again criticised
the world’s response to Pakistan’s worst-ever
flood disaster as “absolutely pitiful” and
said he was “still not sure if the
international community has grasped the
enormity of what’s going.” He said the UK
would need to push “very hard” when he
attends a number of meetings over the next
few weeks about the effects of the disaster,
not least in the UN General Assembly.
But Clegg denied that Prime Minister, David
Cameron’s accusations in India that Pakistan
was exporting terrorism caused the slow
response. “I don’t think you could possible
explain why another country took some time to
provide a donation and explain something in
terms of the bilateral relationship between
England and Pakistan. I think the whole world
took some time to wake up to the enormity of
this,” Clegg said.
He suggested that the initial slow response
was “more to do with the fact that a flood
doesn’t have the same cataclysmic effect on
people watching it on their television
screens as an earthquake or a one off
disaster and particularly because not that
many people were killed at the beginning.”
Before going to Pakistan, Clegg went to
Afghanistan, where he said that the Taliban
should be allowed to join the Government of
Afghanistan. “No insurgency ever in history
has ever been defeated by military means
alone ever. We don’t believe that’s possible,
no-one believes that’s possible. You have to
do two things. You have to apply relentless
military pressure so that the Taliban
leadership, particularly in Afghanistan and
wherever they’re hiding over the border over
in the mountainous regions of Pakistan,
realise there is no military option for them,
they have to pursue non-violent means of
promoting their cause. And then you need to
provide a process by which that non-violent
dialogue can take place,” he told The Muslim
News.
Clegg described it as a “sort of hard and
soft approach” as “exercising military
pressure but providing a political process.”
He denied that the point of going into
Afghanistan was to win the war. “There isn’t
going to be some sort of battle, like a sort
of medieval battle where one side wins. It’s
not going to be like that. What we’re seeking
is to create an environment where Afghanistan
can exercise its own sovereignty as a stable
and increasingly prosperous and peaceful
country. That’s the only objective and that
can’t be done by firing soldiers.” A space
needed to be created “for economic, social
and political development and that’s what
we’re trying to do, we’re very very late, but
we’re finally making progress on the military
front.” He said Britain cannot prevent
terrorist attacks on its streets “unless
Afghanistan state itself is stable and self-
governed. That’s the point, you can’t prevent
Al-Qa’ida from re-infiltrating Afghanistan
and using Afghanistan to launch platform, an
aircraft carrier design, unless Afghanistan
itself is stronger and I have no doubt in my
mind that you can’t insulate Afghanistan from
re-infiltration of Al-Qa’ida with military
means alone. At the end of the day, the only
way you can do that is by building up Afghan
society itself.”
In July, Clegg said that the war in Iraq was
illegal when deputising at Prime Minister’s
Questions, but his officials said that this
was only his view and was not speaking for
the Government. He remained adamant that this
continues to be his view although not of
Cameron and the Conservatives. “We’re in a
coalition government. I’m not going to start
denying my own views. The Government itself
as a whole does not have a view on the
legality of the war. That’s something lawyers
will no doubt be arguing about for a long
time, but unlike my partner in the coalition
government, myself and the Liberal Democrats
are staunchly against the Iraq invasion and
I’m not suddenly going to airbrush that out
of the record, I can’t, that would be very
naïve of me to do that.”
The Lib Dems are also at odds with the Tories
when it declared in its election manifesto to
rule out using military action in the dispute
with Iran, although Clegg decline to repeat
the pledge. “The point now, the priority now,
it’s not the endless speculation about what
might or might not happen in the future but
is to continue to apply very, very strong
international pressure on the Iranian regime.
There is quite a lot of evidence of recent
sanctions of the European Union are having an
effect.”
The Deputy Prime Minister also appears to
differ with the majority of his party over
proposals made by Justice Secretary, Kenneth
Clarke, to amend the law on universal
jurisdiction to prevent Israeli leaders being
arrested on war crimes charges. He suggested
that the Government’s proposal, requiring the
consent of the Director of Public
Prosecution, was “something much better” than
the previous Government wanting the
intervention of the Attorney General. “The
Labour Government want to do something very,
very draconian which is basically to remove
our fine tradition of applying the
universality of human rights, which I’m very
passionate about, to people who are allegedly
abusing human rights, wherever they are,” he
said. “We’re saying, this shouldn’t be in the
hands of politicians and it shouldn’t be in
the hands of the Attorney General to decide
whether the Israeli Foreign Minister or
anyone else can come to the UK. It should be
for the Director of Public Prosecution, not a
political figure to decide whether there’s a
case.”
Labour’s plans were thwarted by 145 MPs
signing an Early Day Motion to Parliament
warning that they would vote against any
change to the law that allows the public to
apply for arrest warrants for suspected war
criminals. Those opposing any amendment
included 53 of the current 62 Lib Dem MPs,
including two who are now cabinet ministers,
Business Secretary, Vince Cable, and Energy
Secretary, Chris Huhne, as well as 11 more
who hold ministerial posts. Since the
elections, 51 Lib Dem MPs have signed a new
EDM declaring that “universal jurisdiction
for human rights abuses is essential as part
of the cause of bringing to justice those who
commit crimes against humanity and (that
they) will oppose any legislation to restrict
this power of UK courts.”
Clegg retained his some of his support for
eventually including Hamas in negotiations
for a Middle East settlement after previously
saying that western leaders must accept their
response to their election had been a
strategic failure. “I agree with you that any
final agreement between Israel and the
Palestinian people needs to incorporate the
West Bank and Gaza and needs to bring
together all parts of the Palestinian
community. At the moment, it’s clearly not
seen possible to have Hamas coming to the
negotiating table. I don’t think Hamas
themselves would want to come. There is a
real problem.”