Iraq Chilcot inquiry agrees to disclose Blair- Bush document deal

Tony Blair and George W. Bush

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Tony Blair and George W. BushU.K. government has agreed to disclose parts of the vital discussions between Tony Blair and George W. Bush to Iraq Chilcot inquiry, overcoming the major hurdle to publication of the long-awaited report into the invasion.

Under the tentative agreement, sensitive conversations between British and U.S. leaders in the run-up to the Iraq war will be published while the full versions will remain secret.

The release of the “vital” material – including 25 notes from Mr Blair to Mr Bush and more than 130 records of conversations between the former U.K. Prime Minister and then U.S. president, have become possible after years of dialogues since its emergence in 2011.

The deal also includes that the disclosed information will only be limited to “quotes or gists” and the inquiry’s use of the material “should not reflect president Bush’s views”.

The British Government’s most senior civil servant Sir Jeremy Heywood, who was principal private secretary to Mr Blair in 10 Downing Street in the run-up to the war, has made the deal possible with the inquiry chairman Sir John Chilcot.

In a letter to the cabinet secretary published on the inquiry’s website, Sir Chilcot has stated: “I am pleased to record that we have now reached agreement on the principles that will underpin disclosure of material from cabinet-level discussions and communications between the U.K. prime minister and the president of the United States which the inquiry has asked to use in its report.

“I appreciate that the inquiry’s requests for disclosure raised difficult issues of long-standing principle, which have taken some months to resolve: recognition of the wholly exceptional nature of this inquiry has allowed that to happen.

“My colleagues and I judge that this material is vital to the public understanding of the inquiry’s conclusions.”

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