Intelligence

Blair brushes off diplomats' warning

Scotsman.com News - UK - Blair brushes off diplomats' warning

ALISON HARDIE POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

TONY Blair yesterday dismissed a warning from more than 50 retired British diplomats about his enthusiasm for tying government foreign policy to that of the United States.

The Prime Minister brushed off the strongly-worded caution, saying it represented only the views of "private citizens" who were not grasping the full complexity of the situation in Iraq and between Israel and Palestine.

In an open letter to Mr Blair this week, the former diplomats, all of whom had worked at the highest levels of the Foreign Office, said he should work to influence the "doomed" US policy on the Middle East and Iraq or stop backing it.

Mr Blair yesterday also played down the prospect of committing further British troops to Iraq in the wake of the withdrawal of the Spanish fighting forces.

He said that Britain already had "sufficient" forces in the country, although Downing Street later confused the issue when it said consultations on troop levels were continuing with other coalition countries.

Mr Blair emerged yesterday to defend his foreign policy decisions after a meeting with Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian prime minister, at Downing Street.

While he acknowledged the "frustration" expressed by the former diplomats over the Middle East, he said the coalition had to ensure Iraq did not fall into the hands of "fanatics and terrorists" - language dismissed as "neither convincing nor helpful" in the open letter sent on Monday.

Mr Blair went on: "Whether people were against the conflict or in favour, what is obvious now is that there is only one side to be on and that is the side of the Iraqi people in their journey towards democracy."

The retired envoys said that if Britain was unable to exert "real influence" with the US administration, it should abandon its support policies which were "doomed to failure".

The Prime Minister is expected to reply to the diplomats’ letter more fully "in due course".

Michael Howard, the Conservative leader, said the letter had to be taken seriously : "It raises very serious questions that deserve serious answers from the government," he said.

And Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, told Radio 4’s Today programme that the letter came from experts in their field.

"The Prime Minister would be well advised to read carefully what they have said and respond in a grown-up fashion," he added.

Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, hit back for the government yesterday and warned against attempts to drive a wedge between London and Washington.

He said: "It is very important for us to try to work with the United States and not to have a polarisation that would weaken our influence and weaken the influence of Europe."

And Mike O’Brien, a Foreign Office minister, said that the diplomats’ criticism of the government’s Middle East policy was based on a "false premise".

The envoys were stung into action after Mr Blair welcomed US backing for the plans of the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, to withdraw from Gaza while leaving Jewish settlements on the occupied West Bank.

They complained that the Israeli plan was "one-sided and illegal" and would lead to further bloodshed in the region.

However, Mr O’Brien said both Mr Blair and George Bush, the US president, had made clear Mr Sharon’s proposals could not prejudge the shape of a final, accepted Middle East peace settlement.

"I was a little bit frustrated by it myself, in the sense that they seem to be advocating a policy and that we should follow it on the Middle East," he said. "But we are following it, then they criticise us for doing it. So I am not entirely sure where they are coming from."

Mr Straw said it had always been understood that there would have to be some compromise on the settlements.

"Those final negotiations may or may not involve the retention of some settlements but that is a matter for agreement between the parties," he said.

April 28, 2004 at 04:46 AM in UK | Permalink | TrackBack (19) | Top of page | Blog Home