Malcolm Blair Robinson

British Foreign Office Blunder

August 23, 2012 By Malcolm Blair-Robinson

It is difficult to imagine a more inept move by the FCO, than threatening to enter the embassy of a foreign country and seize an asylum seeker who had sought refuge within. Not only would it breech international law but it would put at risk every embassy and diplomatic mission of the UK  across the world.

The law which provides for the British government to suspend the diplomatic status of premises and enter them was enacted to allow the authorities to restore order when an embassy was being used for non diplomatic purposes, i.e shooting people in the street below, as in the shocking case of  WPC Yvonne Fletcher.

There is nothing improper about the operation of the Ecuadorian embassy, although the granting of asylum to Mr Assange is controversial. The Ecuadorian government might have been hard pressed to defend their decision internationally, but for the smokescreen of the idiotic threat to storm the embassy and arrest the Wikileaks founder, wanted for extradition to Sweden in connection with allegations of sexual assault.

This is a major foreign policy blunder which is being used to stir up further antipathy to Britain in South America, already under pressure from a frustrated Argentina. The mission of the Foreign Office is to further Britain’s interests by cultivating partnerships and alliances, while promoting the principles which inform our policies in our dealings with international issues.

This imbecile threat, from which even North Korea would shrink to utter, achieves none of these goals. Indeed quite the reverse. With our principle market, Europe, in long term economic difficulty, our recovery depends on forging new markets. Many of these opportunities are in South America.

Oh Dear.

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