British diplomat resigns over Iraq war

By ANNE PENKETH

A high-flying diplomat who helped frame the government arguments that laid the groundwork for the Iraq war has resigned because Downing Street "did not tell the whole truth" about the nature of the Iraqi threat.

It emerged over the weekend that Carne Ross, a former first secretary to Britain's UN mission between 1998 and mid-2002 in charge of Iraq issues, had resigned a month ago just as he was about to take up a senior post in London.

Asked about his reasons for resigning, 38-year-old Mr Ross told The Independent yesterday (Sunday): " I had lost trust in a government that I believe did not tell the whole truth about the alleged threat posed by Iraq before the war."

He also highlighted the government's failure to "fully pursue available alternatives to invasion," in a reference to the option of allowing the UN weapons inspections to continue.

But the diplomat, who had taken a year's sabbatical before going on to serve until last month as chief strategist to the UN mission in Kosovo, refused to comment further.

Mr Ross is the second senior Iraq expert from the Foreign Office to resign over the legality of the war. Elizabeth Wilmshurst, a deputy head in the Foreign Office legal department, walked out in March 2003. Other prominent officials including the chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix and Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, have said that the war was illegal.

Although other diplomats are not expected to follow Mr Ross out of the door, his position reflects the unease about the prosecution of the war among those who knew before the invasion in March 2003 that there was no new evidence that Saddam represented a direct threat to Britain.

Peter Ricketts, the political director of the Secretary of State, Jack Straw, during the run-up to the conflict, had at least two stormy meetings with Foreign Office members who were concerned about the legal basis for waging war on Iraq.

The Butler report into the intelligence that led up to the war and the conclusions of the Iraq Survey Group, which reported 10 days ago that there had been no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has, if anything, only heightened the sense of unease.

Mr Ross's boss, Sir Jeremy Greenstock, who served the government loyally at the United Nations before becoming Britain's top envoy to Iraq, said last week that in his view, the inspectors should have been allowed to complete their work. Sir Jeremy has now retired from the diplomatic service.

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Herald Feature: Iraq