Alastair Crooke CMG (sometimes mis-spelled as Alistair Crooke), born 1949, is a former British diplomat, and is the founder and director of the Beirut-based Conflicts Forum, an organisation that advocates for engagement between political Islam and the West. Previously he was a ranking figure in both British intelligence (MI6) and European Union diplomacy.

Early life and education
Crooke was born in Ireland, to Frederick Montague Warren and Shona Ann Thomson. His elder brother was Ian W T Crooke who became an SAS officer, eventually commanding 23 Special Air Service Regiment. Crooke was brought up mostly in Rhodesia (now  Zimbabwe). He was educated at Aiglon College in Switzerland and at the University of St. Andrews (1968–1972) in Scotland, from which he obtained an MA in Politics and Economics.

Career
Crooke started his career in London banking for a few years.

Crooke later worked for nearly 30 years in the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) under diplomatic cover in Northern Ireland, South Africa, Columbia, Pakistan and the Middle East. His early work included helping provide weapons to jihadists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan and assisting in the Northern Ireland peace process.

In 1997, he became a security adviser to the EU special envoy to the Middle East, and operating out of the British Embassy in Tel Aviv was involved in British attempts to draw Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other Palestinian groups into the political process. He was involved in negotiations to end the Israeli army's siege of Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. He assisted the negotiation of several local truces between the Israelis and Palestinians during the early 2000s. Crooke had good contacts with the Israeli military and intelligence services.

He was a member of the Mitchell Committee into the causes of the Second Intifada in 2000.

In 2001, British ambassador to Israel Francis Cornish described him as "a person who worked with the security apparatuses of both sides. He went into action after they stopped trusting each other and developed a special skill to persuade them of the logic of things and to bridge the lack of confidence between them."  He had a central role in establishing a Hamas ceasefire in 2002.

His MI6 background was exposed by an Israeli newspaper in 2002.

In September 2003, he was instructed to leave the Middle East, against his wishes, because of "personal security reasons" with a British embassy spokesman saying "We do think he's done a really difficult job in difficult conditions and has been outstanding at doing it."

Later life
The "Conflicts Forum" founded by Crooke 2004, has been a consistent advocate for the protection of the Assad regime in Syria,  in spite of the extensively documented war-crimes and other atrocities it committed against the Syrian population. These include the use of poison gas to kill civilians, which was verified by the United Nations. Thus, Aisling Byrne, a projects coordinator for the "Conflicts Forum", has dismissed documentation of systematic torture used by the Assad regime as ‘a deliberate and calculated campaign to bring down the Assad government'. This advocacy of the Assad regime, has led to criticism by Syrian human rights activists, who describe the Conflicts Forum as being "beyond redemption because they have knowingly chosen to adopt a stance that is at variance with the truth.".

Crooke makes frequent appearances on Hezbollah affiliated Al Mayadeen television network. In one such appearance, Crooke vocally defended the policies of Russian president Vladimir Putin vis a vis the Ukraine, and accused NATO of desiring to escalate the conflict.

His book Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, provides background on what he calls the "Islamist Revolution" in the Middle East, helping to offer strategic insights into the origins and logic of Islamist groups which have adopted military resistance as a tactic, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

Private life
Crooke married in 1976; they had three sons, and later divorced. Since 2005, he has lived in Beirut with his partner; they had a son and a daughter and married in 2012.

References 

 

European Union diplomats
Secret Intelligence Service personnel
People of the Israeli–Palestinian conflict
British foreign policy writers
Companions of the Order of St Michael and St George
Writers on the Middle East
Living people
Alumni of the University of St Andrews
1949 births
British officials of the European Union
Alumni of Aiglon College