MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Robin Cook dies after collapse

Robin Cook, the former U.K. foreign secretary who resigned from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government over the 2003 invasion of Iraq, died after he collapsed while hill-walking in Scotland. He was 59.

Cook died at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness where he was taken after collapsing, Sergeant Hamish Grace of Scotland's Northern Constabulary said. He had been walking with his wife Gaynor near the summit of Ben Stack Mountain in western Scotland. He suffered a heart attack, the British Broadcasting Corp. reported.

Cook resigned from Blair's government in March 2003, saying he couldn't support an invasion of Iraq without the agreement of the United Nations. The next day, he led a third of Blair's Labour Party in voting against the war.

Jack Straw, Mr. Cook's successor as foreign secretary, said he was "devastated."

"Robin and I had been good friends for nearly 30 years and that friendship survived our policy disagreements over Iraq," Mr. Straw said. "He was the greatest parliamentarian of his generation and a very fine foreign secretary. I deeply mourn his loss."

A brilliant debater and accomplished raconteur, Cook was a spokesman for the Labour Party for 23 of his 31 years as a lawmaker.

''He was the greatest parliamentarian of his generation and a very fine foreign secretary,'' his successor Jack Straw said in a statement.

As foreign secretary in Blair's first term, from 1997- 2001, Cook announced that Britain would have an ''ethical foreign policy,'' and he was instrumental in military interventions in Kosovo and Sierra Leone.

On March 17, 2003, before the invasion of Iraq to depose Saddam Hussein, Cook said he was leaving Blair's cabinet ''with a heavy heart.'' His speech that evening to the House of Commons was greeted with applause from lawmakers, against parliamentary convention.

''Ironically, it is only because Iraq's military forces are so weak that we can even contemplate its invasion,'' he told them. ''We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre- emptive action on the claim that he is a threat.''

It was a speech ''full of wisdom, passion and great prescience,'' former Culture Secretary Chris Smith, who sat next to Cook while he was making it, told the BBC. ''He foretold virtually everything that has happened since.''

While he disagreed with Blair, Cook remained loyal to the Labour Party following his resignation. He toured British mosques in the run-up to the May 2005 election to urge Muslims to vote Labour in spite of their objection to the Iraq war.

One of his finest moments came while he was still in opposition, with the 1996 publication of a report by Judge Richard Scott into the Conservative government's sale of arms to Iraq during the 1980s. It was 2,000 pages long and weighed 17 pounds.

While government ministers had eight days before its publication to prepare their response, they allowed Cook, as opposition spokesman, three hours to read it before he had to address parliament on its contents. In the ensuing debate, the Guardian newspaper reported, he marked himself out as a future Labour party leader.

''He managed to digest this gargantuan report and turned it into a weapon with which he mercilessly beat the government,'' George Galloway, a former Labour lawmaker who quit the party following the Iraq war, told the BBC today.

Born in Scotland in Feb. 28, 1946, Robin Finlayson Cook studied English Literature at Edinburgh University before becoming a lecturer. He was elected to parliament for Edinburgh Central in 1974, on his 28th birthday, switching districts to nearby Livingston in 1983.

An avid fan of horse-racing, Cook wrote regularly on the subject in Scottish newspapers. Having resigned from Blair's government, he also wrote for several newspapers on political issues, arguing following this year's general election that Blair should set an early date for his departure.

Cook was an avid walker and cyclist. The 721-meter (2,365- foot) Ben Stack Mountain where he collapsed is popular with hill-walkers.

Cook is survived by and two sons from his first marriage.