Dear Prime Minister,
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 cooperation 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 US, 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. The legal and political principles on which such a settlement would be based were well established: President Clinton had grappled with the problem during his presidency; the ingredients needed for a settlement were well understood and informal agreements on several of them had already been achieved. 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. However much Iraqis may yearn for a democratic society, the belief that one could now be created by the coalition is naive. This is the view of virtually all independent specialists on the region, both in Britain and in America. We are glad to note that you and the president have welcomed the proposals outlined by Lakhdar Brahimi. We must be ready to provide what support he requests, and to give authority to the UN to work with the Iraqis themselves, including those who are now actively resisting the occupation, to clear up the mess.
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. The Iraqis killed by coalition forces probably total 10-15,000 (it is a disgrace that the coalition forces themselves appear to have no estimate), and the number killed in the last month in Falluja alone is apparently several hundred including many civilian men, women and children. Phrases such as “We mourn each loss of life. We salute them, and their families for their bravery and their sacrifice,” apparently referring only to those who have died on the coalition side, are not well judged to moderate the passions these killings arouse.
We share your view that the British government has an interest in working as closely as possible with the US 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.
Yours faithfully, [52 former British foreign service officers]
Dear Mr. President,
We former U.S. diplomats applaud our 52 British counterparts who recently sent a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair criticizing his Middle East policy and calling on Britain to exert more influence over the United States. As retired foreign service officers we care deeply about our nation’s foreign policy and U.S. credibility in the world. At the request of our government and military colleagues, we have added their names as well.
We also are deeply concerned by your April 14 endorsement of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s unilateral plan to reject the rights of three million Palestinians, to deny the right of refugees to return to their homeland, and to retain five large illegal settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank. This plan defies U.N. Security Council resolutions calling for Israel’s return of occupied territories. It ignores international laws declaring Israeli settlements illegal. It flouts U.N. Resolution 194, passed in 1948, which affirms the right of refugees to return to their homes or receive compensation for the loss of their property and assistance in resettling in a host country should they choose to do so. And it undermines the Road Map for peace drawn up by the Quartet, including the U.S. Finally, it reverses longstanding American policy in the Middle East.
Your meeting with Sharon followed a series of intensive negotiating sessions between Israelis and Americans, but which left out Palestinians. In fact, you and Prime Minister Sharon consistently have excluded Palestinians from peace negotiations. Former Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo voiced the overwhelming reaction of people around the world when he said, “I believe President Bush declared the death of the peace process today.”
By closing the door to negotiations with Palestinians and the possibility of a Palestinian state, you have proved that the United States is not an even-handed peace partner. You have placed U.S. diplomats, civilians and military doing their jobs overseas in an untenable and even dangerous position.
Your unqualified support of Sharon’s extra-judicial assassinations, Israel’s Berlin Wall-like barrier, its harsh military measures in occupied territories, and now your endorsement of Sharon’s unilateral plan are costing our country its credibility, prestige and friends. Nor is this endorsement even in the best interests of the State of Israel.
It is not too late to reassert American principles of justice and fairness in our relations with all the peoples of the Middle East. Support negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, with the United States serving as a truly honest broker. A return to the time-honored American tradition of fairness will reverse the present tide of ill will in Europe and the Middle East – even in Iraq.
Because the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is at the core of the problems in the Middle East, the entire region – and the world – will rejoice along with Israelis and Palestinians when the killing stops and peace is attained.
Sincerely,
Andrew I. Killgore, Ambassador to Qatar
Richard H. Curtiss, chief inspector, U.S. Information Agency
Colbert C. Held, Middle East Regional Officer
Thomas J. Carolan, Consul General, Turkey
C. Edward Bernier, Counselor, Embassy for Information and Culture, Pakistan
Donald A. Kruse, American Consul in Jerusalem
Edward L. Peck, Chief of Mission in Iraq and Mauritania
John Powell, Admin Counselor of Embassy in Lebanon
John Gunther Dean, Ambassador to India
James Akins, Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Talcott Seelye, Ambassador to Syria
Eugene Bird, Counselor of Embassy in Saudi Arabia Richard H. Nolte, Ambassador to Egypt
Ray Close, Chief of Station Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Shirl McArthur, Commercial Attache, Thailand
David Fredrick, Country Director Peace Corps Morocco
Bill Rugh, Ambassador to UAE and Yemen
James Curran, Deputy Chief of Mission Togo
Joseph Cheevers, Office of Inspectors General
Robert L. M. Nevitt, Minister for Press Affairs for the U.N.
John Brady Kiesling, Political Counselor, Greece
E. William Tatge, Counselor for Commercial Affairs, France
Henry Precht, Deputy Chief of Mission, Egypt
John O. Sutter, FSO, The Asia Foundation’s Representative for Indonesia
James J. Halsema, Counselor for Public Affairs, Egypt
Nancy LeRoy, Public Affairs Officer, Mexico
Thomas M. Martin, USIA Congressional Liaison Officer
Robert C. McLaughlin, USIA Madrid
Edward Alexander, Counselor for Public Affairs, East Berlin
Roman Lotsberg, Admin Officer, Office of European Affairs
Shirley Hill Witt, Cultural Affairs Officer, Zambia
Arthur L. Lowrie, Political Advisor to the Commander in Chief, U.S. Central Command
Carleton Coon, Ambassador to Nepal
Jane Coon, Ambassador to Bangladesh
George B. Roberts, Ambassador to Guyana
Robert V. Keeley, Ambassador to Greece
John E. Marsh, First Secretary, Embassy Kuwait
Thomas W. Fina, Consul General, Milan
Harland H. Eastman, Consul General, Tangier, Morocco, and Tel Aviv, Israel
Arthur Mudge, Director, USAID Mission to Sudan
Ronald I. Spiers, Undersecretary of State for Management
Albert L. Seligmann, Director, Office of Japanese Affairs
Orin D. Parker, President, America-Middle East Educational Services
Robert C. Amerson, Counselor for Public Affairs, Italy
Christian Freer, Colonel, US Army, Retired, former chief of CIA stations and War Plans staff
Thomas J. Hirschfeld, Deputy U.S. Rep MBFR Negotiations
Edward R. M. Kane, Deputy Chief of Station, CIA, Iraq
Richard Hobbes, Colonel, US Army, Retired, Politico-Military Adviser to NEA
David Antoon, Colonel, US Air Force, Retired
Augustine A. Verrengia, Brig. General, USAF Ret.
Greg Thielmann, Director, Office for Strategic Proliferation Military Affairs, INR
Robin Berrington, Cultural Attache, Japan
Gary S. Usrey, Deputy Chief of Mission, Morocco
Owen Roberts, Ambassador to Togo
Chas W. Freeman, Jr., Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Assistant Secretary of Defense
Edwin Paul Kennedy, Jr., Regional Affairs Officer, N. African, Near Eastern, S. Asian Affairs, USIA
Thomas J. Scotes, Ambassador to Yemen
Michael Mennard, Ph.D., Regional Public Affairs Officer, India
Francois M. Dickman, Ambassador to UAE and Kuwait
Terrell E. Arnold, Deputy Director Office of Counterterrorism and Consul General, Brazil
and 17 others
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