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| The Observer view on Boris Johnson’s role in the Middle East | |
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| Boris Johnson’s provocative public criticism of Saudi Arabia has given additional ammunition to those within and without Theresa May’s government who believe he is unsuited to the post of foreign secretary. Johnson’s appointment, in the febrile aftermath of the Brexit referendum and David Cameron’s resignation, always seemed a trifle bizarre. He brought no obvious qualifications or experience to the role, and plenty of awkward baggage. Unsurprisingly, given his reputation for buffoonery, his brief tenure has seen numerous gaffes. Johnson’s more egregious blunders include his hypocritical championing of Turkey’s EU membership bid after he had mocked its president and vilified would-be Turkish migrants, his arrogant description of Europe’s founding principle of freedom of movement as “bollocks”, and his ridiculous remarks about Italian prosecco imports. Now there is his Saudi solecism. Johnson has already done more than enough to convince observers, here and across the EU, that he is the wrong man for the job, especially at this critical juncture. One more big foot-in-mouth moment and May may feel obliged to sack him. | Boris Johnson’s provocative public criticism of Saudi Arabia has given additional ammunition to those within and without Theresa May’s government who believe he is unsuited to the post of foreign secretary. Johnson’s appointment, in the febrile aftermath of the Brexit referendum and David Cameron’s resignation, always seemed a trifle bizarre. He brought no obvious qualifications or experience to the role, and plenty of awkward baggage. Unsurprisingly, given his reputation for buffoonery, his brief tenure has seen numerous gaffes. Johnson’s more egregious blunders include his hypocritical championing of Turkey’s EU membership bid after he had mocked its president and vilified would-be Turkish migrants, his arrogant description of Europe’s founding principle of freedom of movement as “bollocks”, and his ridiculous remarks about Italian prosecco imports. Now there is his Saudi solecism. Johnson has already done more than enough to convince observers, here and across the EU, that he is the wrong man for the job, especially at this critical juncture. One more big foot-in-mouth moment and May may feel obliged to sack him. |
| It is a sign of the dislocated, schismatic times in which we live that Johnson’s political allies do not view this latest controversy in terms of the damage it may do to UK-Saudi relations. For them, that is a sideshow. What matters most for the hard Tory Brexiters, for whom Johnson is chief standard-bearer, is their bid to deflect the more sensible, less doctrinaire approach to Brexit associated with Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and, increasingly, with David Davis, the Brexit minister. In this war for May’s ear, Johnson’s defenders say he is being deliberately undermined – typified by the swift Downing Street rebuke issued after his Saudi critique. For hard Brexit’s blinkered Little Englanders, the current, epic Middle East crisis clumsily highlighted by Johnson’s speech in Rome last week is of secondary importance. | It is a sign of the dislocated, schismatic times in which we live that Johnson’s political allies do not view this latest controversy in terms of the damage it may do to UK-Saudi relations. For them, that is a sideshow. What matters most for the hard Tory Brexiters, for whom Johnson is chief standard-bearer, is their bid to deflect the more sensible, less doctrinaire approach to Brexit associated with Philip Hammond, the chancellor, and, increasingly, with David Davis, the Brexit minister. In this war for May’s ear, Johnson’s defenders say he is being deliberately undermined – typified by the swift Downing Street rebuke issued after his Saudi critique. For hard Brexit’s blinkered Little Englanders, the current, epic Middle East crisis clumsily highlighted by Johnson’s speech in Rome last week is of secondary importance. |
| Yet what is happening in Saudi Arabia, and by extension in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, in the Islamic State’s “caliphate”, and throughout the lands of Islam matters very much indeed to Britain’s future security and prosperity. Johnson was broadly correct when he accused Saudi Arabia of prosecuting proxy wars with its regional rival, Iran. He was right to draw attention to the deepening Sunni-Shia divide within the Muslim world and the lack of credible leaders able or willing to overcome it. Taken together, these issues amount to an existential struggle for the future of the Middle East. | Yet what is happening in Saudi Arabia, and by extension in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, in the Islamic State’s “caliphate”, and throughout the lands of Islam matters very much indeed to Britain’s future security and prosperity. Johnson was broadly correct when he accused Saudi Arabia of prosecuting proxy wars with its regional rival, Iran. He was right to draw attention to the deepening Sunni-Shia divide within the Muslim world and the lack of credible leaders able or willing to overcome it. Taken together, these issues amount to an existential struggle for the future of the Middle East. |
| The war in Syria has exposed the failings and self-interestedness not only of regional states but of the US, Russia, the European powers and UN system, too. Last week saw the battle for Aleppo enter its final, grisly endgame. As predicted, thousands more civilians were displaced as the Syrian army, reinforced by Iranian-orchestrated Shia Muslim fighters from Iraq and Lebanon, plus Russian airpower, advanced into eastern rebel-held areas. | The war in Syria has exposed the failings and self-interestedness not only of regional states but of the US, Russia, the European powers and UN system, too. Last week saw the battle for Aleppo enter its final, grisly endgame. As predicted, thousands more civilians were displaced as the Syrian army, reinforced by Iranian-orchestrated Shia Muslim fighters from Iraq and Lebanon, plus Russian airpower, advanced into eastern rebel-held areas. |
| As predicted, their awful suffering went largely unrelieved while Moscow and Washington bickered over who was to blame. UN envoys throw their arms up in despair. Nobody, it seems, has the power, the vision and the moral drive to rid Syria of its bloody dictator, Bashar al-Assad. And nobody inside or outside Syria, it seems, has the ability, or cares enough, to impose a settlement to end the war. | As predicted, their awful suffering went largely unrelieved while Moscow and Washington bickered over who was to blame. UN envoys throw their arms up in despair. Nobody, it seems, has the power, the vision and the moral drive to rid Syria of its bloody dictator, Bashar al-Assad. And nobody inside or outside Syria, it seems, has the ability, or cares enough, to impose a settlement to end the war. |
| The absence of strong, unifying regional leadership to which Johnson alluded is evident, too, in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition is accused of war crimes. More than a year of fierce attrition has failed to end the conflict. As in Syria, millions are displaced, and little has been achieved. And the principal reason for this stalemate is Shia Iran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi forces, part of Tehran’s wider, multi-fronted challenge to the traditional regional dominance of Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia. | The absence of strong, unifying regional leadership to which Johnson alluded is evident, too, in Yemen, where the Saudi-led coalition is accused of war crimes. More than a year of fierce attrition has failed to end the conflict. As in Syria, millions are displaced, and little has been achieved. And the principal reason for this stalemate is Shia Iran’s support for Yemen’s Houthi forces, part of Tehran’s wider, multi-fronted challenge to the traditional regional dominance of Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia. |
| Although this is not the whole story, Syria and Yemen are the kind of proxy wars of which Johnson spoke. And yet, truly dreadful though these conflicts are, the ultimate, awful expression of the Sunni-Shia schism, of (in Johnson’s words) this “abuse of religion”, is not to be found there but in Islamic State’s encircled fiefdoms in Mosul and Raqqa. The defeat of the Sunni jihadi fanatics of Isis has been forecast many times. Still they cling on. Their continuing, ghastly depredations symbolise the region’s crisis. | Although this is not the whole story, Syria and Yemen are the kind of proxy wars of which Johnson spoke. And yet, truly dreadful though these conflicts are, the ultimate, awful expression of the Sunni-Shia schism, of (in Johnson’s words) this “abuse of religion”, is not to be found there but in Islamic State’s encircled fiefdoms in Mosul and Raqqa. The defeat of the Sunni jihadi fanatics of Isis has been forecast many times. Still they cling on. Their continuing, ghastly depredations symbolise the region’s crisis. |
| Johnson identified the problems. But he did not offer answers. Nor did he acknowledge that British double standards have contributed to present problems. Downing Street’s anger with him was sharpened by the fact that May spent some of last week in the Gulf, currying favour with Saudi royals and the unelected, Sunni autocrats of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Their lucrative arms contracts and investments are considered vital. And May knows continuing bilateral business and free trade deals in the Gulf will be of even greater importance once Britain has cast itself adrift from the EU. | Johnson identified the problems. But he did not offer answers. Nor did he acknowledge that British double standards have contributed to present problems. Downing Street’s anger with him was sharpened by the fact that May spent some of last week in the Gulf, currying favour with Saudi royals and the unelected, Sunni autocrats of the Gulf Cooperation Council. Their lucrative arms contracts and investments are considered vital. And May knows continuing bilateral business and free trade deals in the Gulf will be of even greater importance once Britain has cast itself adrift from the EU. |
| Johnson’s intervention drew overdue attention to Britain’s two-faced attitude to the Saudi regime’s human rights abuses, its eternally unfulfilled promises of internal reform, its ugly addiction to public executions and lashings, its export of extremist Wahhabist ideology, and its use of oil money to, in effect, buy British silence. | Johnson’s intervention drew overdue attention to Britain’s two-faced attitude to the Saudi regime’s human rights abuses, its eternally unfulfilled promises of internal reform, its ugly addiction to public executions and lashings, its export of extremist Wahhabist ideology, and its use of oil money to, in effect, buy British silence. |
| In a speech in Bahrain on Friday, Johnson expressed his “profound concern” over the suffering of the people of Yemen. He made the obvious point that force alone cannot end the war there. It would be churlish to characterise his statements as anything other than sincere. But if Johnson is serious about tackling such issues, he should use his visit to Saudi Arabia today to reiterate concerns, aired last year by Germany’s BND intelligence agency, that Saudi policies are destabilising the region. Johnson should say parliamentary demands that Britain suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia pending UN investigations of its actions in Yemen cannot be resisted indefinitely. | In a speech in Bahrain on Friday, Johnson expressed his “profound concern” over the suffering of the people of Yemen. He made the obvious point that force alone cannot end the war there. It would be churlish to characterise his statements as anything other than sincere. But if Johnson is serious about tackling such issues, he should use his visit to Saudi Arabia today to reiterate concerns, aired last year by Germany’s BND intelligence agency, that Saudi policies are destabilising the region. Johnson should say parliamentary demands that Britain suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia pending UN investigations of its actions in Yemen cannot be resisted indefinitely. |
| Johnson should focus on human rights, including the atrocious treatment of activists in Bahrain. He should speak out against the death penalty and in support of women’s rights. And he should make the point again that the venomous stand-off between Tehran and Riyadh is damaging to regional as well as British and western security interests. It feeds instability. It is self-defeating. And it gives space and oxygen to the anti-religious nihilism of terrorists. | Johnson should focus on human rights, including the atrocious treatment of activists in Bahrain. He should speak out against the death penalty and in support of women’s rights. And he should make the point again that the venomous stand-off between Tehran and Riyadh is damaging to regional as well as British and western security interests. It feeds instability. It is self-defeating. And it gives space and oxygen to the anti-religious nihilism of terrorists. |
| If Brexit really does mean that a more independent Britain will have the chance to reboot its foreign policy and build healthier, equitable and ethical bilateral relationships with its international partners, then the Middle East would be a good place to start. If he were to initiate a more demanding, less subservient British approach to Saudi Arabia, Johnson could begin to justify his continuing role as foreign secretary. He might even be taken seriously. | If Brexit really does mean that a more independent Britain will have the chance to reboot its foreign policy and build healthier, equitable and ethical bilateral relationships with its international partners, then the Middle East would be a good place to start. If he were to initiate a more demanding, less subservient British approach to Saudi Arabia, Johnson could begin to justify his continuing role as foreign secretary. He might even be taken seriously. |