
(Chart from The Telegraph)
High principles? Not quite. From The Telegraph, with thanks to elisot:
Some of the most prominent former diplomats who condemned Tony Blair’s policies in the Middle East have business links with Arab governments, The Telegraph can reveal.
In a letter published last week, 52 former British diplomats condemned the invasion of Iraq and the Government’s support for Israel.
The letter failed to disclose, however, that several of the key signatories, including Oliver Miles, the former British ambassador to Libya who instigated the letter, are paid by pro-Arab organisations.
Some of the others hold positions in companies seeking lucrative Middle East contracts, while others have unpaid positions with pro-Arab organisations.
The disclosure last night prompted allegations – denied by the diplomats – that they were merely promoting the interests of their clients. Andrew Dismore, the Labour MP for Hendon, said: “If an MP had made statements like these without declaring an interest in the subject they would have been before the standards and privileges committee we would have had their guts for garters.
“This casts a very different light on what the former diplomats have said.”
The letter attacked new peace proposals announced by President Bush and Ariel Sharon as “one-sided and illegal”. It warned that the measures would cost “yet more Israeli and Palestinian blood”.
The signatories said they had watched with “deepening concern the policies which you have followed on the Arab-Israeli problem and Iraq, in close co-operation with the United States. There is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure”.