UK govt. slaps down Boris over Saudi Arabia comments
December 9, 2016
The UK government has again called into question the Foreign Secretary's ability to speak on its behalf. His comments on Saudi Arabia, critics argue, could undermine the UK’s support for Riyadh in Yemen.
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Saudi Arabia is "puppeteering and playing proxy wars" in the Middle East and - like Iran - is "twisting and abusing religion" to further its political aims, Johnson said, in remarks published in the UK newspaper The Guardian.
"That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region," Johnson went on.
"And the tragedy for me - and that's why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area - is that there is not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves."
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Brexit club
The pro-Brexit campaigner will now be making frequent appearances in Brussels. The euroskeptic wasn't always so adverse to European integration, whatever his EU opinions. In 1997, he said: "I'm rather pro-European ... I certainly want a European community where one can go off and scoff croissants, drink delicious coffee, learn foreign languages and generally make love to foreign women."
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'Crass and tasteless'
Guests at a gay rights event in 2013 walked out in disgust after Johnson said the following about gay marriage: "I’m delighted that as of this autumn any young man will be able to take his chum up the Arsenal ... and marry him." Labour's Angela Eagle, the first female MP to come out while in office, said that Johnson's "crass and tasteless remarks" only served to undermine the gay community.
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Hitler jokes? Nein, danke
Earlier this summer Johnson struck again, comparing the EU's aims to Hitler's. Speaking to UK newspaper "The Telegraph," Johnson said European history had seen repeated attempts to rediscover the "golden age of peace and prosperity under the Romans." "Napoleon, Hitler, various people tried this out, and it ends tragically. The EU is an attempt to do this by different methods," he said.
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'Special relationship'
Born in New York, Johnson has upset the "special relationship" with the US more than once. In April, Johnson faced huge criticism after recounting the story of a bust of Winston Churchill being moved from the White House to the British Embassy. In the British tabloid "The Sun," Johnson asked whether the move was "a symbol of the part-Kenyan President's ancestral dislike of the British Empire."
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Only one laughing
But Johnson is no stranger to making derogatory comments. In his 2002 column, he described how the Queen had "come to love the Commonwealth, partly because it supplies her with regular cheering crowds of flag-waving piccaninnies." Commenting on then-Prime Minister Tony Blair's trip to Congo, Johnson wrote how "the tribal warriors will all break out in watermelon smiles to see the big white chief."
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Woes with the West Bank
In November last year, Palestinian authorities canceled Johnson's visit after he said a boycott of Israeli goods was "completely crazy" and supported by "corduroy-jacketed, snaggle-toothed, lefty academics in the UK." Officials said Johnson's comments risked creating protests if he visited the West Bank, and accused him of adopting a "misinformed and disrespectful" pro-Israeli stance.
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Bull in a china shop
In 2008, Johnson even managed to offend his hosts at the ceremonial passing of the Olympic flag from Beijing to London. "I say this respectfully to our Chinese hosts, who have excelled so magnificently at Ping-pong," Johnson said. "Ping-pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century and it was called Wiff-waff!"
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No Shakespeare
Johnson won a £1,000 prize in May for penning a poem about Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he referred to the Turkish prime minister as a "wankerer," rhyming with the Turkish capital, Ankara - a far cry from Johnson arguing that Turkey should join the EU in 2006. The competition was launched after Erdogan sued German comedian Jan Böhmermann, whose poem accused him of having sex with a goat.
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We are not amused
Prime Minister Theresa May's spokeswoman, Helen Bower, said later on Thursday that Johnson was "setting out his own views on Saudi Arabia and Iran."
"But he will be sticking to the government's line when he visits Saudi ministers this weekend," she added.
Bower went on to insist that Downing Street had "full confidence in the foreign secretary,” adding that Saudi Arabia "is a vital partner for the UK, particularly on counter-terrorism."
May met Saudi leaders during a Gulf Cooperation Council summit in Bahrain earlier this week, where she praised cooperation with Saudi Arabia in intelligence sharing. "This has saved potentially hundreds of lives in the UK," she said.
In the Saudi capital, Riyadh, concern was expressed at the "mixed signals” being sent by the British, while the UK's shadow foreign secretary, Emily Thornberry, said: "If Boris Johnson keeps getting slapped down by Theresa May every time he states a position, nobody is going to take him seriously when he claims to speak for Britain abroad, and no foreign power is ever going to negotiate with him."
Eccentric, moi?
Johnson's remarks broke a UK diplomatic convention not to criticize Saudi Arabia in public. The UK maintains that the Saudi-led coalition bombing campaign in Yemen - which is aided by UK arms and British military advice - is a legitimate attempt to defend Saudi Arabia's borders.
Yemen has been in a civil war since 2014, when Shiite Houthi rebels overthrew the government
The UK has 1,500 military personnel and seven warships in the region and is due to spend 3 billion pounds (about 3.4 billion euros) in the Gulf on defense in the next decade.
Yemen has been in the midst of a civil war since Shiite Houthi rebels overthrew the government in September 2014.
Johnson had earlier defended UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia for potential use in Yemen, as several British MPs said the weapons were likely to be used to violate human rights laws.
Allies rally around Johnson
Johnson's allies meanwhile were quick to defend the minister.
Andrew Mitchell, the former international development secretary, said: "The reality is that Britain has a complicated relationship with Saudi Arabia and our economic and political interests do not always coincide. In many ways, Saudi is an important ally but we have a duty as their candid friend to warn them about areas of difficulty.”
Sarah Wollaston, the MP for Totnes, tweeted her support for the foreign secretary, criticising Saudi Arabia's record on human rights.
She said: "Boris was speaking the truth on proxy wars and it's time for all parties in the region to end the sectarian bloodbath.”
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