[lit-ideas] Letter to Blair:
- From: "Judith Evans" <judithevans001@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 00:22:49 +0100
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3660837.stm
Ambassadors' letter to Blair
Here is the letter sent by more than 50 former British ambassadors to Tony
Blair, urging him either to influence US policy in the Middle East or to
stop backing it:
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We the undersigned former British ambassadors, high commissioners, governors
and senior international officials, including some who have long experience
of the Middle East and others whose experience is elsewhere, have watched
with deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the
Arab-Israel problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States.
Following the press conference in Washington at which you and President Bush
restated these policies, we feel the time has come to make our anxieties
public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and will lead
to a fundamental reassessment.
The decision by the USA, the EU, Russia and the UN to launch a "Road Map"
for the settlement of the Israel/Palestine conflict raised hopes that the
major powers would at last make a determined and collective effort to
resolve a problem which, more than any other, has for decades poisoned
relations between the West and the Islamic and Arab worlds.
... But the hopes were ill-founded. Nothing effective has been done either
to move the negotiations forward or to curb the violence.
Britain and the other sponsors of the Road Map merely waited on American
leadership, but waited in vain.
Worse was to come. After all those wasted months, the international
community has now been confronted with the announcement by Ariel Sharon and
President Bush of new policies which are one-sided and illegal and which
will cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood.
Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself
seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four
decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land
and which have been the basis for such successes as those efforts have
produced.
This abandonment of principle comes at a time when rightly or wrongly we are
portrayed throughout the Arab and Muslim world as partners in an illegal and
brutal occupation in Iraq.
The conduct of the war in Iraq has made it clear that there was no effective
plan for the post-Saddam settlement.
All those with experience of the area predicted that the occupation of Iraq
by the Coalition forces would meet serious and stubborn resistance, as has
proved to be the case.
To describe the resistance as led by terrorists, fanatics and foreigners is
neither convincing nor helpful.
Policy must take account of the nature and history of Iraq, the most complex
country in the region.
... The military actions of the Coalition forces must be guided by political
objectives and by the requirements of the Iraq theatre itself, not by
criteria remote from them.
It is not good enough to say that the use of force is a matter for local
commanders.
Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the
current confrontations in Najaf and Falluja, all these have built up rather
than isolated the opposition.
... We share your view that the British government has an interest in
working as closely as possible with the United States on both these related
issues, and in exerting real influence as a loyal ally.
We believe that the need for such influence is now a matter of the highest
urgency.
If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting
policies which are doomed to failure.
The signatories are: Brian Barder; Paul Bergne; John Birch; David
Blatherwick; Graham Boyce; Julian Bullard; Juliet Campbell; Bryan Cartledge;
Terence Clark; David Colvin; Francis Cornish; James Craig; Brian Crowe;
Basil Eastwood; Stephen Egerton; William Fullerton; Dick Fyjis-Walker;
Marrack Goulding; John Graham; Andrew Green; Vic Henderson; Peter
Hinchcliffe; Brian Hitch; Archie Lamb and David Logan.
Also: Christopher Long; Ivor Lucas; Ian McCluney; Maureen MacGlashan; Philip
McLean; Christopher MacRae; Oliver Miles; Martin Morland; Keith Morris;
Richard Muir; Alan Munro; Stephen Nash; Robin O'Neill; Andrew Palmer; Bill
Quantrill; David Ratford; Tom Richardson; Andrew Stuart; David Tatham;
Crispin Tickell; Derek Tonkin; Charles Treadwell; Hugh Tunnell; Jeremy
Varcoe; Hooky Walker; Michael Weir and Alan White.
Judy Evans
jaye@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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