Ambassadors’ Letter to Blair

More than fifty former British ambassadors and senior government officials signed a letter criticizing Prime Minister Tony Blair for his unflinching support of the Bush administration's policies in the Middle East. The signatories included former ambassadors to Israel, Iraq, and other Middle Eastern countries, as well as senior British envoys to the United Nations. The letter asserted that the hopes for the joint Middle East Road Map for peace between Israel and Palestine were "ill founded" and that the recent US-Israel agreement was "one-sided," likely to "cost yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood." Similarly, the letter claimed that the policies in post-war Iraq "have built up rather than isolated the opposition" and are creating more chaos in the country. Current British and American policies on both conflicts need to be changed, the letter concludes, because they are "doomed to failure." – YaleGlobal