Having previously denied the idea that the Danish government had misled the parliament about the US-led Iraq invasion, former Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Møller admitted that information may have been manipulated, which he called “regrettable”. Still, he is against re-opening an official inquiry into Denmark’s Iraq campaign.
Per Stig Møller, who served as Denmark’s foreign minister from 2001 to 2010, has admitted that mistakes were made prior to the decision to join the international military campaign in Iraq, which Copenhagen’s biggest ally Washington kept pushing for.
Denmark decided to join the war against Iraq on 21 March 2003, by the narrowest possible majority backed by Venstre, the Conservatives and the Danish People’s Party. Danish troops were deployed in Iraq between June 2003 and July 2007, peaking at about 550 men.
The US-led and Danish-backed invasion effectively ousted Hussein, displacing hundreds of thousands of people, exacerbating ethnic and religious tensions in the entire Middle East and plunging the area into chaos.