Uma fuga de informação trouxe a público memorandos do
embaixador britânico em Washington rotulando o presidente norte-americano como
"inepto" e "excepcionalmente disfuncional", e descrevendo o
seu comportamento face ao Irão como "incoerente" e
"caótico".
A fuga de informação inclui comentários de 22 junho, em que
o embaixador Kim Darroch põe em dúvida a explicação de Trump, segundo a qual
teria cancelado no último instante um bombardeamento do Irão para poupar as
vidas de 150 iranianos. Essa explicação, diz o embaixador, "não se
aguenta".
E acrescenta a sua própria explicação: “É mais provável que
ele nunca tenha estado inteiramente decidido e que estivesse preocupado com o
que esta aparente inversão das suas promessas de campanha de 2016 iria parecer
em 2020".
Os documentos foram revelados pela Mail on Sunday e citam o
embaixador Kim Darroch a profetizar que a presidência de Trump acabará em
"estrondo e chamas" ou, por outras palavras, "em vergonha".
Aí terá escrito Darroch também: "Não acreditamos
realmente que esta Administração vá tornar-se substancialmente mais normal,
menos disfuncional, menos imprevisível, menos facciosa, menos desastrada na
diplomacia e inepta".
Ainda segundo o Mail on Sunday, os comentários mais mordazes
de Darroch são os que classificam o presidente norte-americano como
"inseguro" e "incompetente".
Por ocasião da visita de Trump ao Reino Unido, diz o
embaixador que o inquilino da Casa Branca ficou "deslumbrado", mas
logo acrescenta que esse entusiasmo poderá durar-lhe pouco, porque "este
ainda é o país de a América primeiro".
Fazendo-se eco de análises devastadoras como a de Michael
Wollf ou a de Bob Woodward, o embaixador descreve a Casa Branca como o palco de
"cruéis lutas e intestinas e caos" e afirma que aquelas análises
desmentidas por Trump são "na maioria verdadeiras".
Darroch, considerado um dos mais experientes diplomatas do
Foreign Office, já se encontrava no seu posto quando Trump foi eleito.
O Foreign Office, por seu lado, não contestou a
autenticidade dos comentários. lembrou que as opiniões dos embaixadores não coincidem
necessariamente com as do ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros e comentou,
através de uma porta-voz citada no diário The Guardian: "Nós pagamos-lhes
[aos embaixadores] para serem francos".
Resta saber como reagirá a tanta franqueza o muito susceptível
inquilino da Casa Branca. A porta-voz britânica emitiu a expectativa de que a
reacção seja temperada pela importância das relações privilegiadas entre os
dois países: "A nossa equipa em Washington tem relações fortes com a Casa
Branca e elas resistirão sem dúvida a este comportamento irreverente".
Outra opinião tem Nigel Farrage, o líder da extrema-direita
britânica e conhecido admirador de Trump, que logo se apressou a reclamar a
substituição do embaixador britânico em Washington, antes ainda de o Departamento
de Estado norte-americano ter dado algum sinal de desagrado pelos comentários
vindos a público.
Donald Trump 'inept' and 'dysfunctional', UK ambassador to
US says
In ‘leaked’ diplomatic memos, Kim Darroch reportedly says
presidency could ‘end in disgrace’
Agence France-Presse
Sun 7 Jul 2019 01.23 BST Last modified on Sun 7 Jul 2019
18.38 BST
UK ambassador in Washington, Kim Darroch
Sir Kim Darroch is
due to leave his post as UK ambassador to the US at the end of the year.
Photograph: PA
Britain’s ambassador in the United States has described
President Donald Trump and his administration as “inept” and “uniquely
dysfunctional”, according to leaked diplomatic memos published by the Mail on
Sunday.
Ambassador Kim Darroch reportedly said Trump’s presidency could
“crash and burn” and “end in disgrace”, in the cache of secret cables and
briefing notes sent back to Britain and seen by the newspaper.
“We don’t really believe this administration is going to
become substantially more normal; less dysfunctional; less unpredictable; less
faction riven; less diplomatically clumsy and inept,” Darroch allegedly wrote
in one dispatch.
The paper said the most damning comments allegedly made by
Darroch described Trump, who was received by the Queen during a state visit to
Britain just last month, as “insecure” and “incompetent”.
A memo sent following the controversial visit allegedly said
the president and his team had been “dazzled” by the visit but warned Britain
might not remain “flavour of the month” because “this is still the land of
America First”.
He reportedly wrote that the “vicious infighting and chaos”
inside the White House – widely reported in the US but dismissed by Trump as
“fake news” – was “mostly true”.
Darroch is one of Britain’s most experienced diplomats whose
posting in Washington DC began in January 2016, prior to Trump winning the
presidency.
The Mail on Sunday said the memos, likely leaked by someone
within Britain’s sprawling civil service, cover a period beginning in 2017.
In one of the most recent reported dispatches, filed on June
22, Darroch criticised Trump’s fraught foreign policy on Iran, which has
prompted fears in global capitals of a military conflict, as “incoherent” and
“chaotic”.
He allegedly said the president’s assertion that he called
off retaliatory missile strikes against the Iranian regime after a US drone was
shot down because it risked killing 150 Iranians “doesn’t stand up”.
“It’s more likely that he was never fully on board and that
he was worried about how this apparent reversal of his 2016 campaign promises
would look come 2020,” Darroch reportedly stated, referring to the next
presidential election.
Britain’s Foreign Office did not dispute the veracity of the
memos.
“The British public would expect our ambassadors to provide
ministers with an honest, unvarnished assessment of the politics in their
country,” a spokeswoman said.
“Their views are not necessarily the views of ministers or
indeed the government,” she added, noting “we pay them to be candid”.
“Our team in Washington have strong relations with the White
House and no doubt that these will withstand such mischievous behaviour,” the
spokeswoman said of the potential fallout from the leak.
Leak of UK ambassador's US telegrams plays into wider power
struggle
Mail on Sunday disclosure of Kim Darroch’s criticism of
Trump administration spurred calls for his removal
Patrick Wintour Diplomatic editor
Sun 7 Jul 2019 12.47 BST Last modified on Mon 8 Jul 2019
00.55 BST
Sometimes leaks from within the government are striking not
just for their content, but also for the motive behind them.
The content of telegrams sent from Washington by Kim
Darroch, Britain’s ambassador to the US, and disclosed by the Mail on Sunday,
is a case in point. The leak is also striking for what it tell us about the
struggle for influence at the top of a Boris Johnson-led Conservative party.
The telegrams provide both a Michael Wolff-style assessment
of the chaos inside the early years of Trump’s presidency and an unflattering –
if not damaging – account of Trump’s own personality defects.
They also give some insights into how Britain seeks to
maintain its influence in the White House by trying to “flood the zone” of
opinion formers or outer circles of Trump’s advisers. Recent episodes such as
the Trump team’s glowing assessment of the president’s state visit, and his tête
à tête with the Queen, also get a mention.
Darroch appears dismissive of the president’s strategy
towards Iran. While the material is potentially the most diplomatically
sensitive, it is hardly surprising that the UK and the US do not agree on
whether efforts should be made to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.
The issue over the past year has largely been how to contain
that divergence of opinion so it does not expose other aspects of the special
relationship. Trump however will be angry that Darroch does not believe the
president pulled back from attacking Iran for fear of civilian casualties, an
assessment that insinuates the president was lying.
Any leak inquiry will be working to cross check how such a
wide array of leaks covering such a long time period came to be in the
possession of someone with the motive of putting them in the public domain.
Much will depend on how the president, and the most likely
new British prime minister react. The danger is that Trump will tweet something
dismissive, but then harbour a deep grudge against Britain’s professional
diplomatic service. Some might tell him the Whitehall machine is a nest of
snobbish anti-populist opponents of Brexit.
The real challenge though is actually facing the likely next
prime minister, Boris Johnson, who prides himself on his proximity to the Trump
family, including Jared Kushner, despite their quite different personalities.
One of the first decisions on the in tray for a Johnson
premiership will be a replacement for Kim Darroch, who is due to depart at the
end of the year anyway.
There have been reports that Mark Sedwill, the current
cabinet secretary, is being lined up for the position. The US administration –
which sees ambassadorships as rewards for political friends and donors – may be
suspicious of Sedwill, and would prefer a true Brexiter to guide the special
relationship as Britain detaches itself from Europe, and seeks a free trade
deal with the US.
Sedwill, a widely admired career civil servant with good
links to the US intelligence services, may not fit that bill, but Nigel Farage
– who pretty openly campaigned for the job before Darroch’s appointment in 2016
– does.
Farage will certainly benefit from the leak and what is
notable is that he is one of the voices in the Mail piece calling for Darroch’s
immediate resignation.
The journalist responsible for the scoop, Isabel Oakeshott,
is close to Nigel Farage’s Brexit party. She has even been previously accused
of withholding newsworthy information that might have damaged her best Brexit
contacts, a charge she denies. Her cooperation with former Conservative
chairman Michael Ashcroft, indicates she operates in the twilight world between
journalism and political activism.
But despite Oakeshott and Farage’s perception of the latter
being a suitable Washington envoy, they did need someone to supply them with
the ammunition in the form of the leaks.
There are politicians that have fallen out with Sedwill that
are now close to Johnson, such as Gavin Williamson, the former defence
secretary. Williamson remains bitter at how Sedwill oversaw an official inquiry
into a leak of a national security committee meeting on Huawei that found its
way into the Daily Telegraph within hours of the meeting ending. He insists he
had nothing to do with the leak, and feels aggrieved that he lost his job
largely on the recommendation of the Sedwill’s findings, calling the inquiry a
“kangaroo court”.
But Sedwill’s inquiry was in April and Williamson was asked
to leave the government in May so he would not have access to these papers
covering a state visit in June. His hands look clean.
Moreover, a quick phone chat with friendly journalists about
a cabinet meeting is also of a different order to wholesale leaking of
Darroch’s telegrams. Ironically the man most likely to lead the inevitable leak
inquiry is, of course, Mark Sedwill.
US president criticises Kim Darroch, saying he ‘has not
served Britain well’
What the ambassador is reported to have said about Trump
Andrew Sparrow Political correspondent
@AndrewSparrow
Sun 7 Jul 2019 17.26 BST Last modified on Mon 8 Jul 2019
05.40 BST
Donald Trump has said Britain’s ambassador to the US has
“not served the UK well” as he hit back following the leak of confidential
internal memos that presented an unflattering portrait of the president and his
administration.
Earlier, the Foreign Office ordered an inquiry into the
leaking of the cables, written by the ambassador, Kim Darroch, in which Trump’s
White House is described as “uniquely dysfunctional” and “inept”.
Darroch said in the memos that media reports about vicious
administration rows (“knife fights”, as he put it) were mostly true. He cast
doubt on whether the Trump regime would ever become more stable, described the
president as insecure, and suggested Trump’s career might end in disgrace.
Asked about the controversy in New Jersey by reporters on
Sunday night, Trump said: “The ambassador has not served the UK well, I can
tell you that. We are not big fans of that man … I can say things about him,
but I won’t bother.”
Darroch’s comments were made in a series of briefings sent
to London over the past two years, which were published by the Mail on Sunday.
Although Darroch’s assessments are in line with a lot of mainstream commentary
on the Trump regime, the publication of such remarks from the UK’s top
diplomatic representative in the US is an embarrassment.
Commenting on the leak, the British foreign secretary,
Jeremy Hunt, said: “This was a personal view. It’s not the view of the British
government. It’s not my view. We continue to think that under President Trump
the US administration is not just highly effective, but the best possible
friend of the United Kingdom on the international stage.”
David Gauke, the justice secretary, told the BBC it was
important for ambassadors to be able to give “honest, unvarnished advice” to
ministers, and he said the leak of the cache of memos was “disgraceful”.
Tom Tugendhat, the Conservative chair of the Commons foreign
affairs committee, told BBC Radio 4’s World This Weekend it was “a very serious
breach” of diplomatic rules and that an inquiry must follow. “Diplomats must be
able to communicate securely with their governments in order to be able to
convey the messages that everybody needs to know,” he said. “Governments cannot
make reasonable decisions unless they have all the facts available to them, and
that means an honest assessment of the political situation in the host country.
“This must be investigated. And, if anybody is found to have
been responsible, they must be prosecuted. This is a serious breach of trust
between the British people and their employee, the person who leaked [the
information].”
The Foreign Office said: “A formal leak investigation will
now be initiated.”
Nigel Farage, leader of the Brexit party, said the leaked
material showed why Darroch should be replaced as ambassador to the US. “From
the moment Trump was elected, this man was the wrong person to be the British
ambassador – a globalist in outlook, totally opposed to the Trump doctrine,”
Farage said.
Darroch is due to leave his post at the end of this year,
but the leak may encourage the next prime minister to appoint a successor more
quickly. Mark Sedwill, the cabinet secretary, and George Osborne, the Tory
former chancellor who now edits the Evening Standard, have been named in the
media as potential candidates for the post. Trump once suggested that Farage
himself should be put in charge of the Washington embassy.
The Mail on Sunday scoop was written by Isabel Oakeshott,
the journalist who ghost-wrote The Bad Boys of Brexit, an insider account of
Farage’s role in the 2016 EU referendum. On Sunday she posted a message on
Twitter dismissing claims that the leaks were influenced by a hidden agenda.
“Enjoying the conspiracy theories,” she wrote. “Isn’t it
much simpler? In the absence of government, the civil service becomes politicised.”
In one of the most recent of the leaked memos, Darroch
referred to “incoherent, chaotic” US policy on Iran and questioned Trump’s
claim that he had called off a retaliatory air strike against Tehran after the
downing of an American drone because he had heard at the last minute that 150
casualties were predicted.
Darroch said the claim “doesn’t stand up” because Trump
would have been given the likely casualty figure in his initial briefing.
Darroch said it was more probable that Trump had just changed his mind.
The US state department declined to comment.
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