The war in Iraq is the "greatest blunder" in British foreign policy since the 1956 Anglo-French expedition in Suez, Egypt, former British foreign secretary Robin Cook wrote in the Independent daily Wednesday.
"The Iraq war is proving the greatest blunder in British foreign and security policy since Suez," he said. "The war has neither disarmed a single weapon of mass destruction nor diminished the terrorist threat to British interests."
"It has, though, undermined the authority of the UN, divided us from our major partners in Europe and damaged our status in the Third World, especially Muslim countries," added Cook, who resigned his post as the government minister in charge of relations with parliament last March in protest at British involvement in the Iraq conflict without UN approval.
He also questioned British Prime Minister Tony BLair's motives for joining the US-led war that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
"The truth is that Tony Blair did not take Britain into Iraq because of any evidence of weapons of mass destruction. He joined in the war because he wanted to prove to (US) president (George W.) Bush that Tony Blair was his best friend and Britain was his most reliable ally."
Cook, who has been sniping at Blair since he left government, also dismissed as a "diversion" the probe announced by the prime minister to determine whether flawed intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction was used to justify the war to remove Saddam Hussein.
"The Butler inquiry is a diversion, set up to examine the pretext for war rather than its origins," Cook said.
Lord Robin Butler, a former head of Britain's civil service, will head the probe into Britain's pre-war intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction and report before July.
"It will be a gross injustice if the intelligence services get the blame," Cook added.