This month he clocked up his 50th country since he came to
office, on what has been a remorseless global tour to expand
British diplomacy to places that were previously neglected or
even ignored altogether. He returned from South Africa a few
hours before we meet, leaving himself scarcely time to stock up
on clean shirts before heading off for yesterday’s
Franco-British summit in Paris. After that there’s Tunisia and
goodness know where else. He recently visited Mauritania, a
country that had never seen one of Her Majesty’s ministers in
the 50-odd years since its independence. One can almost imagine
Mr Hague studying a map in his vast corner office to find
uncharted, exotic places to explore like some sort of Victorian
collector.
A few weeks ago he was in Mogadishu, a place most politicians
consider too dangerous to trouble with. Somalia is notorious as
a graveyard of American foreign policy, and more recently as a
haven for pirates, kidnap gangs and Islamist groups inspired by
al-Qaeda. Next week the Foreign Secretary will host an
international conference in London bringing together some 40
nations as well as institutions including the African Union, to
put together a rescue plan for the failed state. He is pursuing
this project as an example of what is now referred to as
Britain’s “expeditionary diplomacy”, which tries to head off
problems before they arise.
Somalia has attracted would-be jihadists from Britain, he says,
so it poses a direct threat to our security. “Al-Qaeda globally
have suffered a lot of setbacks but they are trying to get a
foothold in new places, and to use Somalia as a base to try and
attack the western world,” he explains. “We mustn’t let that
happen. Such people have to be isolated…with a ramping up of
intelligence and law enforcement co-operation in that region.
That directly affects the security of people in the UK. That’s
why we are so heavily engaged in Somalia. We are trying to
prevent terrorism taking a stronger hold in another part of the
world.”
The threat from Iran is more imminent, and dominates his
in-tray. The confrontation escalates steadily by the day. His
assessment is stark: a world crisis appears inevitable. An
international effort is being made to impose oil sanctions, and
Mr Hague professes firm belief in the effectiveness of a twin
track policy based on sanctions and negotiations. He advises
against reading too much into the blood-curling speeches coming
from Tehran, and instead points to the evidence: Iran is in
breach of 11 separate resolutions from the International Atomic
Energy Agency, and this week was found to have sent hit squads
to Thailand to murder Israeli diplomats.
Israel in turn is widely suspected to be behind a ruthless and
highly effective covert war against Iran’s nascent nuclear
weapons industry, using assassination and cyber-strikes. Surely
this must be a useful way of keeping up the pressure on Iran?
The West may privately applaud the way Iran is being harried by
its greatest enemy, but publicly Mr Hague condemns the attacks.
“We do not take part in such things,” he says. “We always
condemn such killings, including the attacks that have taken
place this week against Israeli targets. The way forward is
peaceful, but intense diplomatic pressure.” What about military
action? Experts suggest that the window of opportunity for a
strike against Iran’s nuclear programme is closing fast because
Iran is rapidly transferring its facilities to deep underground
bunkers invulnerable to outside attack. Israel has pointed out
that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose an immediate existential
threat to the Jewish state. The odds of pre-emptive unilateral
action from Tel Aviv are shortening by the day. Senior sources
say Britain has made plain to Israel its objections to such a
move, which Mr Hague says would have “enormous downsides”. He
won’t say outright what he has told the Israelis, but he
explains: “We say to all concerned, including Israel, that our
policy is sanctions and negotiations. We are not favouring the
idea of anybody attacking Iran at the moment.”