Iraq. Met with Kofi Annan today. We agreed that the interview with Pentagon hawk Wolfowitz today in the NY Times signalled that the idea of an armed attack on Iraq was shelved for the time being. We also agreed that this signal from Wolfowitz meant that there would be no inspections in the spring. Why should Iraq accept inspections if it were not to be a way of avoiding invasion?

For the US, the course apparently decided on meant that they would be good multilateralist boys for a while, insisting on the implementation of Res. 1284 including, notably, inspections. The Arab states will support that, feeling that the US had met their concerns and refrained from early military action against Iraq.