Former Blair adviser given key UN role
Diplomat and academic Tom Fletcher has spoken of the struggle since 1948 to secure had two-state solution for Israelis and for Palestinians
A former foreign policy adviser to three prime ministers including Tony Balir,and an ex-UK ambassador to Lebanon, has been appointed to the key post of UN coordinator for humanitarian affairs.
Diplomat and academic Tom Fletcher was confirmed as replacement for Martin Griffiths, who stepped down at the end of June for health reasons, by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In Israel, Griffiths was condemned Griffiths for his actions and statements over the past year, including meeting with the Iranian foreign minister to discuss the future of Gaza, condemning “all sides” in a statement on October 7, 2023.
Fletcher has previously spoken of the difficulty for diplomats since 1948 in delivering a two-state solution for Israel and for Palestinians.
“I think a starting point has to be an unequivocal recognition of Israel’s right to exist, and of Palestine’s right to exist, ” he said in an interview three years ago.
“Suggestions that we can go back to a time when you could deny either of those things are really unhelpful.”
But he has also criticised what he says is an obvious power imbalance.
He said:”“We also have to be honest that there is a massive imbalance. Israel has disproportionate strength, and uses it in disproportionate ways.”
He has expert knowledge on Hezbollah from his time in Lebanon and recently said in a BBC interview he feared the former leader Hassan Nasrallah would “take him out anytime” as he did with some opponents in the country.
Fletcher began his diplomatic career in Kenya and France, before serving as a foreign policy advisor to Prime Ministers Gordon Brown, Tony Blair, and David Cameron.
In 2011, he became the youngest senior British Ambassador in 200 years when he took up the post of Ambassador to Lebanon. In 2020, he took up the post of Principal at Hertford College, where he read Modern History.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two countries that supply large amounts of humanitarian aid, had put forward rival applications.
A group of 60 diplomats and humanitarians wrote a letter to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, in April saying that at a time of unprecedented humanitarian crises it would be “quite wrong arbitrarily to restrict the search of a humanitarian coordinator to nationals of any one member state”.
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