Minute jay to secretary of state iraq future handling

Peter Collecott Simon Gass Alan Charlton William Ehrman Edward Oakden Graham Fry Edward Chaplin Dominick Chilcott, IPU Charles Gray, MED Secretary of State IRAQ: FUTURE HANDLING 1. Since mid-January, the Office's mechanisms for handling Iraq have been based on MED's Iraq section (now semi-dormant while the staff have been redeployed on shift duty in the Emergency Unit); and the Iraq Planning Unit, which is, strictly speaking, an interdepartmental Whitehall-wide rather than FCO body. This has worked well. But it is not sustainable indefinitely, and we need to devise a stable structure which will enable us to sustain the considerable effort which will now be needed for quite a while yet. 2. Peter Ricketts. Edward Chaplin and I have concluded that we should amalgamate IPU and the former MED Iraq section into a new unit. We should continue to build on the cross-Whitehall brand recognition IPU has acquired. though to reflect the change of role should rename it "Irag Policy (rather than "Planning") Unit". We should also work to maintain the present IPU's DECLASSIFIED Michael Jay DECLASSIFIED