TONY BLAIR faced an unprecedented attack on foreign policy in the Middle East and Iraq yesterday, when dozens of eminent former British envoys jointly wrote a damning letter to Downing Street.

Already under pressure from growing violence in Iraq, where more British troops may be deployed, the Prime Minister is accused of “abandoning” peace efforts between Israel and the Palestinians and of pursuing a policy in Iraq “doomed to failure”.

“We feel the time has come to make our anxieties public, in the hope that they will be addressed in Parliament and lead to a fundamental reassessment,” the document, signed by 52 former ambassadors, high commissioners and governors, says.

The list includes three former ambassadors to Iraq and many senior former Arabists in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, who have been privately critical of government policy for some time. But it also includes prominent former envoys with little direct contact with the region such as Sir Crispin Tickell, who served at the United Nations, Sir Bryan Cartledge, who was in Moscow, and Paul Bergne, who until recently was the Prime Minister’s personal envoy to Afghanistan. Last night Downing Street acknowledged receipt of the letter and said that it would respond “in due course”.

A spokesman said: “What I would stress is that our objectives both in Iraq and the Palestinian conflict remain stability, peace and freedom in the Middle East.”

The letter was drafted by Oliver Miles, a former ambassador to Athens and Tripoli, who had to evacuate the embassy when relations with Libya were cut in 1984. He said that he and other colleagues felt compelled to act because of deteriorating circumstances in the region.

“Never has government policy been so controversial. It is an indication of our serious concern that what is probably the biggest such collective group has gone straight to the Government in this way,” he said. “Our objective is not to damage Blair politically but to strengthen the hand of those who feel as we do. Our voice will be heard.”

The envoys write in scathing terms about the Government’s reliance on US policy, particularly the failure to establish peace in the Middle East. “Nothing effective has been done either to move the negotiations forward or to curb the violence. Britain and the other sponsors of the ‘road map’ (to peace) merely waited on American leadership, but waited in vain,” the letter says.

It goes on to accuse Mr Blair of backing unilateral plans unveiled this month by Ariel Sharon, the Israeli Prime Minister, and supported by George Bush, for a partial withdrawal from the Occupied Territories.

“Our dismay at this backward step is heightened by the fact that you yourself seem to have endorsed it, abandoning the principles which for nearly four decades have guided international efforts to restore peace in the Holy Land,” the letter reads.

The criticism is equally fierce over Iraq, where Britain is accused of going to war “with no effective plan for the post-Saddam settlement”. The envoys call for authority to be given to the UN and pressure applied on America to curtail its military action.

“Heavy weapons unsuited to the task in hand, inflammatory language, the current confrontations in Najaf and Fallujah, all these have built up rather than isolated the opposition. The Iraqis killed by coalition forces probably total between ten and fifteen thousand (it is a disgrace that the coalition forces themselves appear to have no estimate),” the letter adds.

The former diplomats write that as “a matter of the highest urgency” Britain needs to exert “real influence” on America to change policies. If not it urged Downing Street to reconsider its relationship with Washington. “If that is unacceptable or unwelcome there is no case for supporting policies which are doomed to failure,” the letter concludes.

Sir Alan Munro, the former British Ambassador to Riyadh, said that this was the first time in living memory that such a large group of former envoys had acted in this manner. He said that their views were reflected by many serving diplomats at the Foreign Office.

Sir Menzies Campbell, Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, urged Mr Blair to listen. “This is a most remark-able intervention from a group of people who are almost certainly the most expert in Britain on the issue,” he said.

Donald Anderson, Labour chairman of the Commons Foreign Affairs Select Committee, said: “It is probably unprecedented for a group of former ambassadors to stir from the torpor of retirement to write a letter like this and it does reflect widespread unease. But I suspect that there are an equal number who would put a different emphasis in favour of the Atlantic alliance.

“In respect of Iraq, they (the former diplomats) are absolutely correct in saying there was insufficient attention given to the post-conflict situation but they are short on where we go from here.”

John Maples, a Tory member of the committee, said: “We are now committed to our Iraq policy and I do not think it does any good to second-guess it. The criticism that not enough thought has been given to what we did after the military defeat is pretty clear but I think one has to make the best of it now.”

Other senior MPs cautioned that there was an “Arab caucus” of former Foreign Office staff presenting a one-sided view. One told The Times: “There is a group of people unkindly known as the Camel Corps who learnt to speak Arabic and were seduced by the Arab world. I’m afraid that some became apologists and became part of the problem.”

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