Don’t Expect Boris Johnson to Have Our Back With Iran
With the U.K. already engulfed in its own Brexit crisis, it’s unlikely Johnson has any desire to stake his reputation on a conflict with Iran
Boris Johnson, the new prime minister of the United Kingdom, entered 10 Downing St. last week facing a seemingly impenetrable problem: how to navigate the increasingly tense relationship between Iran and the United States.
President Donald Trump’s decision to pull the U.S. from a nuclear pact with Iran has sparked a game of chicken between the two countries. This year, U.S. and Iranian military assets in the Gulf have come close to clashes on multiple occasions as drones have been knocked down and tankers have been antagonized in one of the world’s most crowded and important international shipping lanes.
Through all the grandstanding, Washington leaders have pressured their British allies for support in the region. While Theresa May was reluctant to join U.S. calls to create a maritime coalition to guard allied oil tankers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is hoping Johnson might be more amenable to such a partnership.
Johnson, in the words of one former U.K. intelligence official, is a “blank page” on…
