Margaret Beckett a "frustrated bystander"

Guardian

The former chief spokesman for the Foreign Office has called on Tony Blair to abandon his current policy on Lebanon and head an EU-led peace conference on the crisis.

John Williams, who was spokesman for the past three foreign secretaries, said the prime minister now needed to salvage his reputation by resurrecting the Anglo-French-German axis which had negotiated with Iran to deal with the war in Southern Lebanon.

And he suggests that with foreign policy being made in Downing Street, Margaret Beckett, the current foreign secretary, is little more than a "frustrated bystander".

Mr Williams, chief spokesman for the FCO until this summer, writes today that Mr Blair must bluntly tell George Bush and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert that their "strategy has failed". Read more