UK’s Gulf foreign policy all at sea

Jeremy Hunt, right, may have wanted to show that a troubled government could still act decisively when he joined forces with Gibraltar in seizing an Iranian tanker left on July 5. In practice, a weakness has been revealed by failing to defend a British-flagged vessel seized in retaliation, left. Pictures: AFP/Getty

COMMENT

At a time of national crisis it seems as though Britain’s uncertainty about its place in the world is becoming a vicious circle.

Conservative prime ministers have been boasting since 2010 that they want to reassert the country’s historic influence in the Middle East, but on Friday night they were rewarded with humiliation.

Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary, may have wanted to show that a troubled government could still act decisively when he joined forces with Gibraltar in seizing an Iranian tanker on July 5. In practice the decision has alienated Britain from its allies in the European Union and, by failing to defend a British-flagged vessel seized in retaliation, revealed all too publicly a weakness caused by years of cuts to military expenditure.

Britain’s long-term policy may be to project itself as the European half of the transatlantic relationship with America that we like to think has upheld the world order since the Second World War. However, President Trump’s comments about the crisis on Saturday were vague. Britain was a “good ally”, he said, and America would “work with” us even if there was no “written agreement” forcing it to.

Such words make clear where the power lies: Mr Trump seems to believe the “special relationship” is about doing Britain a favour for old times’ sake.

The reality behind that appearance may be even worse. The US and the EU are in theory on opposite sides when it comes to Iran. The Trump administration has torn up America’s side of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran while the EU, including Britain, has vowed to maintain it. Britain and the other European powers are supposed to be overseeing a special financial instrument that will enable Iran to continue importing and exporting humanitarian goods, circumventing US banking sanctions.

That effort has gone unrewarded in terms of concessions to Britain over Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the charity worker in jail in Iran, let alone over the tanker crisis.

Nevertheless, Britain has so far failed to agree to an American proposal to create a coalition of navies in the Gulf to patrol and protect shipping — a coalition that would have masked the Royal Navy’s shortcomings at a stroke.

‘More hostile’

Britain apparently believes that to do so would appear belligerent and raise tensions further.

However, Britain has also been noticeably more hostile than its European partners towards Iran. Mr Hunt, along with Boris Johnson, his opponent in the contest for Downing Street, and Theresa May have also been more openly tolerant of Mr Trump’s foreign policy posturings.

In a little-noticed development Britain has said it will send more troops to Syria to replace those Mr Trump is withdrawing from the east of the country. The seizure of the Iranian tanker in Gibraltar, which at the very least conforms to US demands if it was not done at America’s request, takes the shift toward the US one step further.

The result is that Britain is neither a full partner of the US nor a full player in Europe’s very different approach to international security at present. The government, such as it is, may believe that it can forge its own path, as befits the “great nation” it tells us we are. That was a theoretically plausible stance — until the Iranians decided to board a British-flagged vessel and the Royal Navy was reduced to standing by helplessly and begging them to stop, to no avail.

The Times