Senior Christian diplomat criticises UK and US
-9/11/04
As the US and British military a
Senior Christian diplomat criticises UK and US
-9/11/04
As the US and British military assault on Fallujah escalates, a former top foreign policy adviser to PM Tony Blair has voiced serious concerns about the continuing Iraq conflict. He has also declared that environmental disaster is a greater global threat than terrorism.
Sir Stephen Wall, who is now principal adviser to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, said yesterday that ëit should not have been impossible to reach a common European view on Iraq before Britain became committed to an unstoppable course of action on the part of the United States.í
Speaking at the prestigious Royal Institute for International Affairs in Chatham House, London, Sir Stephen went on: ëI believe that, in Britain, we allowed our judgement of the dire consequences of inaction to override our judgement of the even more dire consequences of parting from the rule of law.í
He added: ëWe have to be firm in our adherence to that rule of law, even if it sometimes means parting company with the United States and adhering to the United Nations as the only defence against the rule of might that we have.í
The BBCís chief political correspondent, Andrew Marr, last night described Sir Stephenís intervention as ëvery significant indeedí.
Before taking up his post with the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales Sir Stephen Wall was UK Permanent Representative to the European Union. He was also head of European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office.
His address, ëThe UK, the EU and the United States: Bridge, or just Troubled Waterí, signals further fall-out among senior advisers with the Blair governmentís Iraq policy. Last April the current head of legal studies at Chatham House, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, resigned her position as Deputy Legal Adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because she disputed the legality of the war.
In his lecture Sir Stephen highlighted the serious rift between Europe and the US on social as well as political matters. ë[The] distaste for George Bushís America Ö is about a sense that we have less in common in our view of society and social justice now, than in the past. And it is also about differing views on the rule of law.í
Widening his critique, he declared: ëThe fact that the United States is a great democracy to whom we owe our continued survival as free nations is not, I believe, sufficient reason to give them the benefit of the doubt when they unilaterally withdraw from the Test Ban Treaty, or deny the jurisdiction of the international terrorism court, or want nothing to do with the Kyoto treaty which is a first tentative step towards tackling a threat to life on our planet much greater than that posed by terrorism.í
Senior Christian diplomat criticises UK and US
-9/11/04
As the US and British military assault on Fallujah escalates, a former top foreign policy adviser to PM Tony Blair has voiced serious concerns about the continuing Iraq conflict. He has also declared that environmental disaster is a greater global threat than terrorism.
Sir Stephen Wall, who is now principal adviser to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, said yesterday that ëit should not have been impossible to reach a common European view on Iraq before Britain became committed to an unstoppable course of action on the part of the United States.í
Speaking at the prestigious Royal Institute for International Affairs in Chatham House, London, Sir Stephen went on: ëI believe that, in Britain, we allowed our judgement of the dire consequences of inaction to override our judgement of the even more dire consequences of parting from the rule of law.í
He added: ëWe have to be firm in our adherence to that rule of law, even if it sometimes means parting company with the United States and adhering to the United Nations as the only defence against the rule of might that we have.í
The BBCís chief political correspondent, Andrew Marr, last night described Sir Stephenís intervention as ëvery significant indeedí.
Before taking up his post with the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales Sir Stephen Wall was UK Permanent Representative to the European Union. He was also head of European Secretariat in the Cabinet Office.
His address, ëThe UK, the EU and the United States: Bridge, or just Troubled Waterí, signals further fall-out among senior advisers with the Blair governmentís Iraq policy. Last April the current head of legal studies at Chatham House, Elizabeth Wilmshurst, resigned her position as Deputy Legal Adviser at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office because she disputed the legality of the war.
In his lecture Sir Stephen highlighted the serious rift between Europe and the US on social as well as political matters. ë[The] distaste for George Bushís America Ö is about a sense that we have less in common in our view of society and social justice now, than in the past. And it is also about differing views on the rule of law.í
Widening his critique, he declared: ëThe fact that the United States is a great democracy to whom we owe our continued survival as free nations is not, I believe, sufficient reason to give them the benefit of the doubt when they unilaterally withdraw from the Test Ban Treaty, or deny the jurisdiction of the international terrorism court, or want nothing to do with the Kyoto treaty which is a first tentative step towards tackling a threat to life on our planet much greater than that posed by terrorism.í