As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary”: “101. When Mr Blair spoke to President Bush on 31 July the ‘central issue of a casus belli’ and the for further work on the optimal route to achieve that was discussed. Mr Blair said that he wanted to explore whether to explore whether the UN was the right route to set an ultimatum or whether it would be an obstacle.”
– Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary,” IraqInquiry.org.uk, July 31, 2002