British Ambassadors Predicted Iraq Invasion Would Be a ‘Nightmare'

By DAVID BLAIR, The Daily Telegraph
May 2, 2007

LONDON — 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, 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 Mr. Roberts's desk in Dublin.

To the best of his memory, the assessments offered by Britain's representatives in the Islamic 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."

Mr. Roberts 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."

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

Mr. Roberts, 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, Mr. Roberts served as ambassador to Italy and once described President Bush as "Al Qaeda's best recruiting sergeant." He retired last year with a blistering valedictory telegram, saying the Foreign Office was gripped by "management speak" amounting to "bulls—- bingo."

Mr. Roberts, 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 policymaking. This has helped the prime minister and his Downing Street advisers to assume much of its former role.