A state visit to the US by the King and Queen next month should not go ahead while the war with Iran continues, a former British ambassador to America has urged.
Sir Peter Westmacott, the UK’s representative in Washington DC from 2012-16, said the trip by Charles and Camilla would be ‘problematic’ if the war against the Tehran regime is still raging.
The state visit is expected to take place next month, when the royal couple are due to to visit Washington and New York to mark 250 years since American independence.
Although not formally announced, planning for the visit is understood to be at an advanced stage with formal confirmation expected soon.
A further royal visit, this time by the Prince and Princess of Wales – who have been invited by President Donald Trump – is scheduled for this summer.
But Sir Peter – one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats, who also served as Charles’s deputy private secretary between 1990 and 1993 – was concerned the state visit could be viewed as an ‘endorsement’ of the US-Israeli war.
He said the government had a ‘a duty to protect the monarchy in a situation like this’ and ‘a duty to reflect public opinion’.
In an interview with The Royals podcast, he told The Times: ‘I personally think that at the moment … while this war is continuing … it is problematic.
Sir Peter Westmacott was Britain’s Ambassador to the United States between 2012 and 2016
The King with Donald Trump at Windsor Castle on US President’s visit to Britain in September
‘The United States government is conducting a war, which the British government initially thought clearly was illegal.’
Findings of a YouGov survey of 12,002 people published last week showed 46 per cent of those polled said the visit should be cancelled, while 36 pc believed it should go ahead and 18 pc were undecided.
Sir Peter added: ‘Both the Prime Minister and I imagine the palace will be asking themselves, ‘What does British public opinion really feel about this? How will a state visit to the United States at this time be perceived, how will it be felt?
‘Is this indicative of the King … endorsing what the president of the United States is doing?’ While this goes on, that must be a matter for discussion.’
Instead of cancelling the state visit, Sir Peter called for postponement, to avoid offending ‘thin-skinned’ Trump and to protect the US-UK ‘special relationship’.
He said: ‘A postponement is something quite different from a cancellation as a political gesture … that’s a statesmanlike way of managing the issue.
King and Queen bid farewell to Donald and Melania Trump at the end of the US premier’s visit
‘It is too important a relationship for us to mess with and to risk antagonising a somewhat thin-skinned president.
‘There are ways in which you can deal with these things. You can say: ‘this is of absolutely critical importance, we’re dying to do it, but the timing doesn’t work.’
President Trump came to Britain for a state visit, accompanied by his wife Melania, last September.
Sir Peter also described some of America’s actions in the conflict as ‘war crimes’ – including the sinking of Tehran’s Iris Dena ship ‘unarmed off the coast of Sri Lanka’ and the bombing of a girls’ school ‘because the United States government hadn’t done proper targeting’
He said: ‘This is pretty horrific. This is war crime stuff.’
