U.S. President Donald J. Trump backed the United Kingdom after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, saying the Islamic Republic is in “big trouble”.
“Iran is showing their true colours,” President Trump told reporters outside the White House, adding: “Iran is in big trouble.”
The President’s relationship with British government ministers and prominent opposition politicians, such as hard-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan, has often been strained, as they have rushed to commentate negatively on his administration in hopes of winning the approval of left-liberal activists and media commentators.
Nevertheless, the American leader’s attitude to his late mother’s home country as a whole has been consistently warm — in contrast to the attitude of his predecessor — and he was quick to emphasise the long-standing British-American alliance in his comments on the tanker seizures.
“[A]s you know we have a very close alliance with the UK and we always have,” he told reporters.
“We don’t have very many tankers going in but we have a lot of warships there and we’ll talk to the UK.
“We have no written agreement… but they’ve been a very great ally of ours,” he added, denouncing Iran as “nothing but trouble”.
UPDATE: Iran reported to have seized SECOND British Tanker https://t.co/nEIcpnWFZG
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 19, 2019
The response of Jeremy Hunt, the Remain-voting Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary currently facing off against Leave-voting predecessor Boris Johnson for the Conservative Party leadership and, by extension, the office of Prime Minister, was comparatively weak.
Hunt, who made a point of backing Britain’s outgoing ambassador to the United States after a series of anti-Trump emails emerged, said he was “extremely concerned” by the tanker seizures and described them as “unacceptable”, pledging to “respond in a way is considered but robust” and threatening “serious consequences” — but ruled out meeting Iranian aggression with force.
“We’re not looking at military options, we are a looking at diplomatic way to resolve the situation, but we are very clear that it must be resolved,” he said.
WATCH: Hunt Stands to Attention for Islamic Call to Prayer at Foreign Office https://t.co/EFdLPGeC6n
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 26, 2019
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