Everybody Knew!

Envoys 'warned of Iraq invasion nightmare'

By David Blair, Diplomatic Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:04am BST 02/05/2007

Every British ambassador in the Middle East warned the Government that invading Iraq would be a "nightmare" and turn popular opinion against the West, a former envoy has told The Daily Telegraph.

Sir Ivor Roberts: warnings

Sir Ivor Roberts, now the president of Trinity College, Oxford, saw a selection of the telegrams sent by Britain's envoys in the Middle East when he served as ambassador to Ireland before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.

As Britain and America massed their forces on Iraq's borders, these telegrams to the Foreign Office contained the ambassadors' considered advice on the wisdom and likely consequences of going to war. Some were circulated to every British envoy in the European Union and reached Sir Ivor's desk in Dublin.

To the best of his memory, the assessments offered by Britain's representatives in the Muslim world were unanimous. "Every ambassador in a Middle East post accurately predicted what a nightmare invading Iraq would be," he said.

"The telegrams I saw were full of doom and gloom about the consequences."

Sir Ivor did not "check them off one by one", but believes that every ambassador "from the Arab world or the Muslim world was anticipating how disastrously it would play in their countries at both public and government levels".

Sir Ivor did not see all the secret telegrams emerging from Britain's embassies in the Middle East. But British ambassadors in EU countries were on the Foreign Office circulation list for "quite a large amount of traffic".

Sir Ivor, who retired last year, called for an official inquiry into the war in Iraq. "How we landed up in this mess is going to be the subject of a long inquiry, I hope," he said.

After leaving Dublin in 2003, Sir Ivor served as ambassador to Italy and once described President George W Bush as "al-Qa'eda's best recruiting sergeant". He retired last year with a blistering valedictory telegram, saying the Foreign Office was gripped by "management speak" amounting to "bullshit bingo".

Sir Ivor, 60, stands by his key criticisms of his former employer. He believes the Foreign Office is obsessed by management at the expense of diplomacy and policy-making. This has helped the Prime Minister and his Downing Street advisers to assume much of its former role.

"There are now 34 separate reviews being undertaken at the Foreign Office. There are skills audits, capability reviews, zero-based accounting reviews and so on," said Sir Ivor. "Apart from being deeply demoralising and unsettling for Foreign Office staff, the same staff cannot be expected to focus on crucial policy questions, like how we clear up the mess in Iraq."

He added: "It's rather odd that outside the UK, British diplomacy is highly admired and we seem to be spending our time dismantling it faster than anyone can imitate us."

At the end of his career, Sir Ivor ended one hallowed tradition. Until last year, departing British ambassadors would always send a valedictory telegram to the Foreign Office. Under an equally hallowed tradition, these missives would often be leaked.

After extracts from Sir Ivor's last telegram were published, Sir Peter Ricketts, the permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, ruled that no further valedictory dispatches would be allowed.

Sir Ivor said that his criticisms of the Foreign Office had won praise from "every corner of the organisation".

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