Blair authorised the unlawful bombing of Iraq despite knowing it.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair ordered the 1998 bombing of Iraq despite repeated warnings that such a move was unlawful. He would follow the same template when the UK invaded Iraq in 2003. The US and UK launched a four-day bombing campaign against Iraq in December 1998, after then-US President Bill Clinton accused Saddam Hussein of breaching commitments to the UN and developing weapons of mass destruction. In the runup to the bombings, Blair was repeatedly told by his advisers that using force against Iraq would be illegal without a resolution from the UN Security Council. Attorney General John Morris reportedly told Blair that obtaining a statement from the Security Council would be an essential precondition to military action, while Blair’s private secretary John Holmes told the prime minister that British law officers and Foreign Secretary Robin Cook had a “serious problem about using force unless the Security Council declares that Iraq is in ‘material breach’ of previous resolutions.” The most important details in this text are that when the law officers refused to authorize the military to draw up targeting plans, Blair wrote to Holmes and received warnings throughout 1998.

When Blair announced military action to Parliament in November, he declared that he had the proper legal authority. British officials claimed that a 1990 resolution authorizing UN members to force Hussein’s army out of Kuwait gave them permission to intervene again in Iraq. Blair saw bombing Iraq as essential to maintaining his close relationship with Clinton and said that failing to intervene would cause “extreme damage” to US-UK relations. He also told Clinton that the US could count on his support.