Removing Saddam not an option, Straw said

LONDON, Feb. 2 (UPI) -- Removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq was never the objective of Britain's role in diplomatic affairs before the 2003 invasion, a former official said.

London is examining its role in the Iraq war from the planning stages up to when British forces left the country in 2009.

Jack Straw, who served as British foreign secretary under former Prime Minister Tony Blair, told the Iraq war inquiry in London that regime change wasn't an objective when considering how to deal with Saddam in 2002.

"You could have the wish and desire to see regime change and within clear limits wanted to encourage that," he was quoted by the BBC as saying. "But it could not be and was not an objective of British government policy."

Straw contended that if Iraq agreed to comply with the United Nations on additional verification measures regarding its weapons program, the war wouldn't have happened.

"There would have been no possibility of the U.K. being involved in military action, at all, and I do not think that even if President (George W.) Bush had been ill-advised enough to want to go to war, he would have done so," he said.

Blair testified at length before the inquiry, saying he didn't see a distinction between Saddam's government and its alleged weapons ambitions.