UK 'must be fully involved' in Iraq

Britain must lobby hard to ensure that its views are considered in any change in Washington’s Iraq policy after the Republicans’ poll defeat, a former ambassador to the US said today.

Sir Christopher Meyer has warned that the UK would have no choice but to go along with the new direction that most commentators expect to emerge from George Bush’s hammering in mid-term elections.

Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has already resigned after public hostility to the the Iraq war was blamed for the president’s party losing control of both houses of Congress.

Meyer, Britain’s representative in Washington until shortly before the 2003 invasion, told BBC’s Radio 4’s Today programme: “For better or for worse, we cannot dissociate ourselves from whatever change of policy may emerge from Washington.

He added: “You can’t unwind the past. You can’t unscramble the omelette. We are there.

"Thousands of our troops are there.

“It would be a recipe for even greater mayhem if we go careering off in one direction and the United States in another.

“The answer to that is proper consultation between the two big allies and to ensure, forcefully, that our views, if they happen to differ from those of the United States’ politicians and military, are conveyed with all the vigour at our command.

“We must be fully involved, no unilateral decisions in Washington.”

Meyer said there were “no good options” for future policy in Iraq, and noted that the Democrats were “split God knows how many ways about the right way forward”.

The “great diplomatic question” would be whether to involve the administrations of Iran and Syria, he said.

“It may work. It may not, but just to turn your back on them is rank silliness.”