US and Britain wrangled over Iraq's oil in aftermath of war, Chilcot shows
Source: The Guardian
Thursday 7 July 2016 21.05 BST
The US and British governments fought bitterly over control of Iraq’s oil following the toppling of Saddam Hussein, the Chilcot papers show. Tony Blair seemed more concerned than the Americans about any invasion being seen by critics as a war for oil, telling them it would be very damaging if the two countries were seen to “grab Iraq’s oil”.
But Sir David Manning, foreign policy adviser to Tony Blair, told Condoleezza Rice, the US national security adviser, in Washington on 9 December 2002 that Britain still wanted more of the spoils.
“It would be inappropriate for HMG [Her Majesty’s government] to enter into discussions about any future carve-up of the Iraqi oil industry,” he said. “Nonetheless it is essential that our [British] companies are given access to a level playing field in this and other sectors.”
UK government officials called in a team from BP for a briefing about the prospects for the Iraq energy sector on 23 January 2003, two months before the invasion, which ended in May.
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/jul/07/us-and-britain-wrangled-over-iraqs-oil-in-aftermath-of-war-chilcot-shows
= new reply since forum marked as read
Most of us opposed to the war were. We knew right off that the war was a "grab for oil".
Britain's whining that they didn't get as much of it as they wanted would be amusing if it weren't for the 4,500 dead Americans, and God knows how many dead Iraqis...
Remember that slogan from demonstrations around the world during the run up to the US invasion of Iraq? Remember Cheney's energy task force?
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