U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair said, while speaking to the House of Commons on July 20, 2003: ” ‘I agree that it would have been better to let the [weapons] inspectors [in Iraq] have more time, provided that we had a UN resolution for them to operate under which laid down a clear ultimatum to Saddam that action would follow if he did not comply with the benchmarks that I agreed with [chief UN weapons inspector] Hans Blix at the time. However…some other countries made it clear that they would not accept any resolution containing an ultimatum.’ ”
– Clare Short, An Honourable Deception?, Pages 252-253