Trump Sees Chance With Boris Johnson to Lure UK on Iran, Huawei

By David Wainer

As Boris Johnson hurtles toward a no-deal Brexit that could leave the U.K. diplomatically adrift and economically vulnerable, President Donald Trump is looking to seize an opportunity to lure the country away from Europe on some of his top foreign policy priorities: Iran and Huawei.

Yet with Johnson focused on negotiating a breakup with the European Union—and perhaps a snap election at home—the White House may have to be patient in its hopes that the U.K.’s leadership change will bring closer alignment on issues including sanctioning Iran’s nuclear program and blocking Huawei Technologies Co. equipment from new 5G mobile networks.

Trump is pressing his case regardless. He and Johnson spoke by phone last week about “areas of further cooperation,” including trade, 5G technology and global security, according to a White House statement. With Johnson—a “good man” Trump has long praised for wanting to leave the EU—now at 10 Downing Street, the U.S. sees Johnson’s need for an eventual bilateral trade deal with America as leverage to peel Britain away from Europe on key issues.

In a first bid to serve as a bridge between the White House and European allies, the U.K. announced on Monday that it will lead “an international mission to restore safe passage” in the Persian Gulf, working with partners including the U.S. Navy. The move offers a face-saving opportunity for countries that spurned a U.S.-led initiative because they blame Trump for quitting the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran.

A senior White House official said the U.S. expects cooperation will grow more robust with the new government, as the two countries work together extensively on security issues including North Korea. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo predicted the nations that long have boasted of their “special relationship” will grow even closer.

“I think we’ll find that there’s a very good working relationship there,” Pompeo said in a Bloomberg TV interview last month. “When the prime minister gets his feet on the ground, I’m looking forward to having a chance to chat with him and his foreign secretary so that we can deliver on behalf of these two important democracies.”

New Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab will be in Washington this week, and his language will be mined for clues on where the U.K. is headed.

Working in the U.S.’s favor is Johnson’s need to seal a trade deal with Washington after the U.K.’s departure from the EU, expected Oct. 31. To help smooth that process, Johnson could take more symbolic steps to spurn Europe and sidle up to Trump.

Key Question: Iran

Johnson’s proposal on Gulf maritime security was welcomed by the U.S. But that doesn’t mean he’s ready to follow Trump in quitting the multinational nuclear agreement the American president has called the “worst deal ever.” In announcing the maritime mission, Raab, the foreign minister, said, “We remain committed to working with Iran and our international partners to de-escalate the situation and maintain the nuclear deal.”

Johnson has repeatedly signaled that he’s a strong supporter of the nuclear deal, which the U.K. and other participating nations have struggled to maintain in the face of renewed U.S. sanctions against Iran. As British foreign minister in 2018, when Trump pulled out of the agreement, Johnson said talks with Tehran culminating in a new accord were difficult to imagine.

“One of the big questions is whether he will break with European unity on Iran,” said Richard Nephew, a Columbia University scholar who was part of the U.S. team that negotiated the nuclear accord. “He needs Trump on his side, at the very least promising a favorable trade deal, as he takes the U.K. down the Brexit route.”

Germany’s Worries

In Germany, there’s concern that Johnson and Trump will try to build a new version of the “special relationship,” according to a coalition official in Berlin.

The Germans see Johnson’s intention to seek a trade deal with the U.S. at a time when the EU is already negotiating such a pact as further evidence of a breach, said the official, who asked not to identified discussing Britain’s political direction. French President Emmanuel Macron’s aides also routinely say that they see the British as potential trouble-makers on trade.

Despite receiving invitations, Johnson hasn’t traveled to the major European capitals. By contrast, his predecessor went to Berlin within days of coming to power.

In the most telling example of friction between London and its European partners, the U.K. undercut a French-led initiative to find a common candidate to lead the International Monetary Fund. Mere hours before EU governments were to begin voting on a candidate, the U.K. suddenly objected to the process and said it wouldn’t take part in offering a potential nominee or in the voting, according to a source familiar with the interaction.

All this is fertile ground for the White House to act to pull the U.K. away, and the promise of a free-trade deal is the biggest carrot of all for a prime minister determined to bring about Brexit and deliver on its promised benefits. That’s why Johnson’s meeting with Trump at the Group of Seven summit in France this month will be the most-watched bilateral of them all for the Europeans.

Picking an Envoy

Johnson will also have a chance to appoint a new ambassador to Washington because Kim Darroch abruptly resigned last month after the leak of internal messages in which he criticized the Trump administration as “clumsy and inept.”

Johnson’s failure to defend Darroch in a televised campaign debate brought criticism from a Foreign Office official who said he’d thrown the ambassador “under a bus.”

Trump had failed to win British support on a number of issues under former Prime Minister Theresa May. A U.K. government official said the U.S. relationship can only improve in light of May’s lack of rapport with Trump. The official predicted a strengthening of relations, drawing on new opportunities on trade and other issues, but not a total reset of ties.

Even under Johnson, breaking the U.K. away from the European Union on foreign policy will be tough, according to three senior European diplomats with knowledge of the new British government. Any moves to cozy up to Trump may be more symbolic than substantive, particularly because Johnson has to worry about maintaining a single-seat majority in the House of Commons.

‘Political Opportunists’

“What Trump and Johnson have in common is they are political opportunists,” said Charles Kupchan, former senior director for European Affairs at the National Security Council in the Obama administration. “They believe in America First, Britain First. They’re out for themselves and I don’t think either Trump or Johnson will be making sacrifices to help each other.”

And while the U.K. is still reviewing its position on Huawei, which the U.S. sees as a stalking horse for Chinese spying and wants banned from allied nations, all four U.K. carriers are already building their 5G networks using equipment from Huawei. BT Group Plc’s EE and Vodafone Group Plc have even gone live with their Huawei-supported 5G. Delaying or freezing that deployment would be an additional hit to an increasingly fragile British economy.

Showman Politics

Trump may have to be patient, knowing the U.K. leader has other priorities. Unlike May, who Trump publicly criticized on multiple occasions, the president sees in Johnson’s rise a vindication of his own style of showman politics.

“Trump from the get-go has been a supporter of getting on with Brexit and he likes populist and right-wing leaders, wherever they may be,” said Kupchan, the former Obama administration official who’s now a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

But unlike Trump, Johnson has less room for error on the world stage and is therefore expected to be less volatile. While Trump can insult allies and foes, tear up agreements, and still command any leader’s attention, the U.K. is a diminishing power, said Andreas Krieg, who teaches defense studies at King’s College London.

“He talks about building a Global Britain but he know there’s no capacity to build a global power,” said Krieg. “He understands Britain is not America.”

Photo: Wikicommons

Pompeo Tells U.K. Not to Go `Wobbly' in Stinging Rebuke

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo fired a broadside of criticism at the U.K.’s approach to national security, demanding America’s long-standing ally takes a far tougher approach to China and Iran, and to hurry up and deliver Brexit.

Pompeo’s remarks, during a trip to the U.K., risked a diplomatic argument with one of the U.S.’s closest allies, just a month before President Donald Trump is scheduled to pay a formal state visit to Queen Elizabeth II. His criticism comes at a particularly sensitive time for Prime Minister Theresa May, who is struggling to complete Britain’s divorce from the European Union and under daily pressure to resign.

In his speech, Pompeo risked an unflattering and undiplomatic comparison with Britain’s first female prime minister—urging the U.K. to think of what the so-called Iron Lady, the late Margaret Thatcher would do, faced with the same global challenges.

Now is “the exact opposite time to go wobbly,” Pompeo told an audience in London’s Lancaster House, one of the most prestigious diplomatic venues in the British capital.

“Ask yourself this: would the Iron Lady be silent when China violates the sovereignty of nations through corruption or coercion?” he said. “Would she allow China to control the internet of the future? I know it’s a sensitive topic, but we have to talk about sensitive things, as friends.”

He said it was a matter of Chinese law that the Chinese government can demand access to data flowing through Huawei systems, which the U.K. hasn’t ruled out as a supplier for next-generation 5G communications networks.

The U.K. is a a linchpin of the international “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing alliance that includes the U.S. and Pompeo has warned that doing business with Huawei might come at the expense of continue to exchange secrets.

“Why would anyone grant such power to a regime that has already grossly violated cyberspace?” he said. “What can Her Majesty’s Government do to make sure sensitive technologies don’t become open doors for Beijing’s spymasters?”

Pompeo’s comments represent a blunt critique of Britain’s approach to security. The U.K. government is in the process of weighing up the role the networking giant will play in Britain’s new telecoms network. The reason allies are on edge is because so-called 5G technology is critical to everything from artificial intelligence to driverless cars.

The U.S. has already urged allies to ban the Chinese provider from running sensitive 5G telecoms infrastructure but May’s administration is said to be considering allowing Huawei a limited role.

Pompeo spoke after a meeting with May and talks with Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt. In his speech, the top U.S. diplomat turned to the differences of approach between the two allies over the handling of the nuclear threat from Iran.

While there is “no daylight” between Britain and America on the severity of the threat emanating from the Iranian regime, May’s government should take a harder line, he said.

“I urge the U.K. to stand with us to rein in the regime’s bloodletting and lawlessness, not soothe the Ayatollahs angry at our decision to pull out of the nuclear deal. If this is about something like commerce, let’s open markets together. I know that we can.”

In perhaps the comments most likely to cause embarrassment to his hosts, Pompeo then complained that May’s handling of Brexit was delaying the talks on a U.K.-U.S. trade deal that Trump is impatient to strike.

“President Trump is eager for a new free trade agreement that will take our Number 1 trade relationship to unlimited new heights,” Pompeo said. “We’ve filed all the papers we can at this point. We’re ready to go. But we can’t make progress on a new agreement until Brexit gets resolved—God speed and good luck.”

Photo: Wikicommons

Iran Adhering to Nuclear Deal: British PM

Iran is adhering to its commitments under the Iran nuclear deal and the accord—repudiated by the United States—should stay in place, Britain's prime minister said in an interview broadcast  on Sunday.

"From what we see, we believe that it is doing that," Theresa May told CBS. 

"We believe that that should stay in place. And others, involved in putting that deal together believe that it should stay in place," May said in excerpts of an interview shown on "Face the Nation" that was to air in full Monday on "This Morning."

But there are other issues outside the deal that also need to be dealt with, she said.

"Looking at the issue of ballistic missiles. Looking at—the way in which —Iran is acting in the region—to destabilize the region. We need to address those issues," May said.

May's interview came as world leaders geared up for a week of high-stakes diplomacy at the UN General Assembly, which is set to be dominated by North Korea and Iran.

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump will for the first time chair a Security Council meeting on non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction that will focus heavily on Iran -- likely triggering a clash with other big powers.

Earlier this year, Trump pulled the US out of the deal it reached with Iran and five other countries in 2015. That accord lifted sanctions against Tehran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program.

Now, the US is reimposing those sanctions.

Other parties to the deal have argued that it is working and should stay in place, while the International Atomic Energy Agency has said Iran is complying with the accord.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons