Jeremy Greenstock

Sir Jeremy Q. Greenstock, GCMG (born 27 July 1943) is a retired British diplomat, active from 1969-2004.

Life and career

Greenstock was born in Harrow on the Hill, north-west London, the son of Ruth Margaret (née Logan) and John Wilfred Greenstock. He was educated at the Harrow School and Worcester College, University of Oxford. He taught classics at Eton College from 1966 to 1969. Greenstock joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 1969. He served in the British embassies in Washington DC, Paris, Dubai and Saudi Arabia.

United Nations work

Greenstock was the United Kingdom Ambassador to the United Nations for five years, from 1998 to July 2003 where he attended over 150 meetings of the United Nations Security Council. From October 2001 to April 2003, he was Chairman of the Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee.

In 2003 he acted as the head of a Security Council mission to West Africa to assess the UN activities there, including the work of UNAMSIL.

Iraq and aftermath

In September 2003, Greenstock was appointed the UK's Special Representative for Iraq, where he worked alongside Paul Bremer within the Coalition Provisional Authority.

Greenstock left his position in Baghdad in late June 2004, on a timing agreed with the UK government.

Greenstock wrote a book about his role in the Iraq war that was expected to be released in the Autumn of 2005, but was withdrawn from publication at the request of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Greenstock appeared on the Charlie Rose talk show on May 14, 2008 and explained some of the contents of his book. During the interview he stated categorically that British and American leaders had known since 1998 that Iraq under Saddam Hussein had no nuclear weapon capabilities or programs.

On November 27 and December 15, 2009, Greenstock gave evidence to the Iraq Inquiry regarding his time as ambassador to the United Nations.

Post retirement

Greenstock is Chairman of Gatehouse Advisory Partners, a Geopolitical consutancy he established with Sir David Manning in 2010.

Greenstock was appointed Chairman of the United Nations Association of the UK in February 2011.

He was Director of the Ditchley Foundation 2004-2010 and was a Special Advisor to the BP Group. He is a Non-Executive Director of De La Rue plc, and a Trustee of the International Rescue Committee (UK).

The Labour MP for Luton North, Kelvin Hopkins, told the House of Commons on May 19, 2011 that Greenstock took up an advisory consultancy post with the oil industry in Iraq.

External links

• Sir Jeremy Greenstock's Biography on the United Nations Association of the UK website
• Greenstock statement in full, BBC, 17 March 2003
• Coalition 'misanalysed' Iraq mood, BBC, 26 March 2004
• Iraq 2004: What went wrong, BBC, 1 January 2005
• No 10 blocks envoy's book on Iraq, The Guardian, 17 July 2005
• FO accused of censoring insider book on Iraq war, The Guardian, 18 July 2005
• Ex-Blair envoy gives Iraq warning, BBC, 23 September 2005

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by Sir John Weston	UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations 1998–2003	Succeeded by Sir Emyr Jones Parry