Diplomat: Iraq policy a rank disaster

Wednesday, 8 November 2006 12:00 AM

Britain's foreign policy in Iraq has been condemned as a "rank disaster" by a top diplomat who quit over the war.

Policy making in the run up to the Iraq war was "extremely poor in that I don't think the proper available alternatives to war were properly considered", Carne Ross told the foreign affairs select committee today.

The diplomat also gave evidence to the 2004 Butler inquiry, which investigated the British government's intelligence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

"I think the presentation of intelligence to the public on weapons of mass destruction was manipulated and I think that the proper legal advice from the Foreign Office on the legality of the war was ignored," Mr Ross stated.

He said foreign policy success should be measured by how effectively it relieved suffering, adding: "And if that is your measure, our policy has been a rank disaster in the last few years in terms of bloodshed."

By that measure, invasion had been "a much greater disaster even than Suez".

Speaking as the committee published its Active Diplomacy report, Mr Ross - a member of the British mission to the UN during the run-up to the 2003 invasion - said officials at the Foreign Office had been divided over invading Iraq.

"I think senior members are extremely adept at giving the sort of spiel.that, to an extent, you heard this morning [during the meeting on today's report]," he told MPs.

Mr Ross added that officials had a tendency "to tell ministers what they wish to hear in order to advance one's own individual prospects".

He warned of a "creeping politicisation of the diplomatic service", which meant that "to get promoted you have to show yourself as being sympathetic in identifying with the views of ministers and, in particular, the prime minister".

Decision-making powers had become "increasingly concentrated" at Downing Street, he said adding: "The Foreign Office has become subsidiary to Number 10."

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Michael Moore said Mr Ross' comments were "only the latest in a series of damning insights into the government's policy in Iraq".

The evidence supported the view highlighted by the chief of the general staff, Richard Dannatt, "that the current strategy in Iraq is failing", he argued.

Calling on the government to "follow the US example of the Baker Commission and set up a review of the Iraq strategy", Mr Moore said: "The stakes are too high for the prime minister simply to follow decisions taken in Washington.

"Any new strategy must be based on a phased withdrawal of troops - sooner rather than later, months not years."

Tags:
• armed forces
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• defence
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• foreign policy
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• iraq
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• middle east