Imagine the response if protesters were to smash up JFK or Heathrow airports, closing down international flight services. The US and British authorities would have culprits rounded up and jailed, or worse, shot dead on the spot by armed police. The scenes of vandalism and lawless insurrection this week at Hong Kong’s airport – the…
The UK acknowledged its first defeat by Iran when it released the Iranian super tanker “Grace 1” captured by 30 Royal Navy commandos in the first week of July in response to a US request, as the Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell revealed. In response, Iran will release the British-flagged tanker “Stena Impero”, captured by the…
It’s more than coincidence that on the first day of US National Security Advisor John Bolton’s visit to London this week, Britain announced the dispatch of another warship to the Persian Gulf. Since Boris Johnson became British prime minister nearly three weeks ago, President Donald Trump’s administration has been pushing London to take a harder…
When Washington announced a few weeks ago the formation of a maritime “international coalition” to “protect shipping” in the Persian Gulf, many observers were skeptical. Now skepticism has rightly turned to alarm, as the proposed US-led “coalition” transpires to comprise a grand total of just three nations: the US, Britain and Israel. The term “coalition”…
It is clear that the United Kingdom could not have thought this through. Was it a touch of the Suez jitters, the haunting syndrome of 1956 leaving a false impression that the Old Empire still had it? To taunt a power already under the watchful and punitive eye of the United States was never a…
With Boris Johnson laser-focused on delivering a crash-out, no-deal Brexit in October, Ireland needs to stop the foot-dragging and wishful thinking and begin preparing for a border poll and potential reunification. This week, a report by a major UK business group called for the UK, Irish and EU leaders to hold emergency talks in Belfast…
