This is Robin Cook's first major interview since resigning. Some interesting comments he makes - interview is too long to post in its entirety, so just posting my selected excerpts.
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Of Bush's Axis of Evil speech, when he named Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the enemies of the free world, Cook says, archly, that 'whoever wrote it' was ignorant of the realities.
'The immediate effect of the speech was to achieve a major reverse for the reformers in Iran,' he said, pointing out that the ayatollahs used the speech to attack America and democratic forces at home. 'If we are going to have a multilateral system we've all got to have ownership of what the priorities are going to be.'
Cook says that Britain now finds itself in a diplomatic position 'that it will come to regret'. Too close to America, too far away from Europe.
'Where should we be looking for the future direction of Britain's strategic international relations, for me the answer is Europe, to make sure that we are a major player and we are passionate that Europe speaks with a strong voice which means we try and speak without a divided voice,' he said.
'There are many reasons for that but the need to have an alternative pole, not a rival, but an alternative pole within international affairs is one of them. I have always been strongly committed to a multilateral system. We must respect international institutions.
'We need to engage in an international community that can bring to international forums and state with clarity the type of European values that are certainly not shared by many of those in the Bush administration,' he said.
'Firstly a respect for multilateral protocols, secondly if we are going to achieve a world governed by rules then we need to respect international process. There are two other European themes: a respect for global environmentalism and that the priorities of the international community reflect the massive priority of tackling poverty.
'We are not going to win the international war against terrorism unless we also win the international war against poverty.'
He suggests that when Bush decided push had come to shove, Britain should have said no. The inspectors needed more time, and Britain should have been strong enough to say so. 'Tony genuinely believed he could deliver unity behind the US for confrontation and that this unity in itself would produce sufficient progress on the part of Iraq that would have averted war,' Cook said.
'One of the reasons we didn't get that unity was because people felt that there was an impatience on the part of America to push the pace at which other countries would not readily go.
'Also, there were some noises off from the US which undermined our diplomatic effort. Calling France and Germany Old Europe was not helpful to what the British diplomats were trying to secure.
'One lesson is that although we must maintain our traditional alliance with America while it has an administration which does not share our world view or our values we have to make sure that we keep enough distance, that there is an option for Britain to come to a different conclusion.'
Cook and his stuffed stoat will soon be moving out of the Government apartment he has lived in since 1997. He expects that resignation is 'a one way street' and it is unlikely that he will ever return. And each day he will watch the bombing live on television certain in the belief that it could all have been avoided.]()